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TALKING IT ALL OVER 



Letty’s Good Luck 


BY HELEN SHERMAN GRIFFITH 


AUTHOR OF 


“LETTY OF THE CIRCUS” 
“LETTY AND THE TWINS” 
“LETTY’S SISTER” 
“LETTY’S TREASURE” 


Illustrated by Paula B. Himmelsbach 



THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY 
PHILADELPHIA 

MCMXIV 


rzcj 

Gm 


COPYRIGHT 
1914 BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY. 


XcT 2 

JUL -8 1914 

©CI.A374705 


Introduction 


Letty Grey first made her appearance in 
“ Letty of the Circus,” which told of a little 
girl who drove Punch and Judy, a pair of 
trick ponies. When she was left alone in the 
world by the death of her mother Letty was 
adopted by Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, “ the writer 
lady.” A jolly little boy and girl who had 
befriended her during her hard times took her 
to the country, and what they did there was 
described in “ Letty and the Twins.” After- 
ward she and her adopted mother move to 
New York, where Letty has some interest- 
ing new experiences at Miss Sims’ School, 
and where she begins to suspect that she 
has a voice worth cultivating. This is all in 
“ Letty’s New Home.” 

A trip to England is described in “ Letty’s 
Sister,” which tells also how Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones discovers a child of her own, Violet, 
whom she had long believed to have been lost 
at sea. “ Letty’s Treasure ” is mostly about 
3 


4 


INTRODUCTION 


school and the girls there, with something of 
Madame Henri, Letty’s teacher. Part of the 
time the girls are at Lakewood, where a little 
seed of jealousy springs up and sprouts and 
causes trouble, though not enough to prevent 
some very good times with a large circle of 
friends. 


Contents 


I. 

Something for Letty 

. 


9 

II. 

The Concert . 

. 


24 

III. 

An Errand of Mercy 

. 


39 

IV. 

The Errand of Mercy and Another 

53 

V. 

Mr. Drake and the Papers Again 


66 

VI. 

A Small Story and Its Meaning 


81 

VII. 

An Old Friend Goes Away 



95 

VIII. 

The Lost Ring. 



109 

IX. 

An Interview with Miss Terlowe 


123 

X. 

Violet’s Adventure . 



138 

XI. 

To the Rescue 



i 55 

XII. 

Just In Time 



172 

XIII. 

Letty Goes Visiting 



183 

XIV. 

A Week-End 



198 

XV. 

An Episode 



213 

XVI. 

The Old Robinson House . 



229 

XVII. 

Mr. Drake’s Explanation 



243 

XVIII. 

A Business Trip 



260 

XIX. 

Home Again 



273 

XX. 

Good Luck and Bad . 



289 

XXI. 

Conclusion 



3°9 


5 



Illustrations 


Talking It All Over 
“ Can We Help You ? ” . 

She Opened Her Book . 

“Run Up-Stairs and Get Ready” 
“I Wonder What This Is?” 


PAGE 


Frontispiece 


. 62 


. 116 


. 191 


. 299 



Letty’s Good Luck 


7 












Letty’s Good Luck 


CHAPTER I 

SOMETHING FOR LETTY 

Letty Grey was cuddled very comfortably 
in a hollow of warm, dry sand which she had 
made for herself on the beach. She was feel- 
ing very contented and a little sleepy after 
her sea bath, and not at all inclined to move. 

Even when she saw her sister Violet and 
Molly Wilson approaching she did not get up, 
but lay watching them idly, out of half-closed 
eyes. She smiled a dreamy greeting when the 
two girls flopped down beside her and curled 
up her feet to make room. 

“ Here are two letters for you, Letty,” 
announced Violet, dropping them in her lap. 
“ We’ve just come from the post-office. One 
of them looks rather interesting ; such funny 
handwriting.” 

Violet did not bathe in the sea. The doctor 
9 


io LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


was afraid that the energy of the surf might 
have a bad effect on her weak hip, and Molly 
Wilson frequently missed her morning dip for 
the sake of being with her friend. 

Molly and Violet had established an in- 
timacy which was almost David and Jonathan- 
like in its intensity. Letty often declared to 
herself that she was not jealous of this ardent 
friendship, just as she had so often declared to 
herself the winter before that she did not 
mind giving up her pretty bedroom to Violet 
and moving herself and her belongings up to 
the third story. But she was surprised to 
find that timid, shrinking Violet had actually 
grown to prefer some one’s else society to her 
own ; and she felt lonely sometimes. Her ill- 
ness in the spring had left Letty not quite so 
strong as formerly and a little more sensitive. 

But every day of the simple, well regulated 
life in the invigorating sea air brought back 
fresh health and nerve force ; she was at least 
strong enough to keep all such petty emotions 
to herself, so that no one, not even her beloved 
Aunt Mary, guessed at her state of mind. 

“ Aren’t you going to read your letters?” 
asked Violet curiously, after a pause. 


SOMETHING FOR LETTT u 


Letty sat up and yawned. 

“ It’s so deliciously warm and comfy, I hate 
to move,” she said lazily. “ Who’d you say 
my letters are from ? ” 

“ One’s from Meta Lowell ; I recognize the 
handwriting, but who the other is from, I 
don’t believe you can guess yourself.” 

“ Go to the foot of the class for a mistake in 
grammar,” interpolated Molly playfully. She 
had undertaken in a quiet, tactful manner to 
bring up to time some of the lagging ends of 
Violet’s tardy education. “ From takes the 
accusative case, ‘ from whom.’ Repeat after 
me, child, and I’ll overlook the slip this time.” 

Violet rewarded her instructor by throwing 
sand at her, and then urged Letty to try and 
guess the name of her correspondent. 

Letty’s curiosity was roused and she took 
up the letter in question. It was addressed 
in a cramped, unformed hand, and had been 
forwarded to Sea Side from the New York 
address. 

“ I wonder if it can be from Tottie Haines,” 
she speculated. “ But Mrs. Goldberg knows 
our address here. I wonder ” 

“ What good will wondering do? ” laughed 


12 LE TTY'S GOOD LUCK 

Violet. “ Do open it, Letty ; then you’ll 
know.” 

“ I think it’s part of the excitement of 
getting a strange letter to wonder about it,” 
put in Molly. “ Let’s each make up a person 
it might be from. I say the writer is a widow, 
the mother of seven children, who wants you 
to get up a concert and give her the proceeds.” 

“ Mercy, how could a poor widow with 
seven children know that Letty sings,” ob- 
jected the literal Violet. “ It probably is from 
Tottie and she sent it off without telling Mrs. 
Goldberg anything about the matter.” 

“ We might as well solve the mystery,” said 
Letty. “ Here goes. Oh ! Why, it’s from 
Mrs. Drake. Poor soul, her husband is ill,” 
she added, glancing over the contents of the 
letter. 

“Who is Mrs. Drake?” asked Molly, com- 
pletely unenlightened by Letty’s ejaculation. 

Violet explained that the Drakes were 
owners of a circus with which Letty had once 
performed. While she sketched, as well as she 
could, the little page of Letty’s past history, 
Letty herself was reading her letter with some 
astonishment. 


SOMETHING FOR LETTT 13 

“ Well, this is funny,” she exclaimed at 
length. “ Let’s go home, girls. I want to 
show this to Aunt Mary.” 

“ There ! ” exclaimed Violet. “ I felt sure 
that it was something more than an ordinary 
letter. Do tell us what’s happened, Letty.” 

“ Why, nothing’s happened. At least, I 
don’t suppose anything is going to happen, 
really, but I’d like to talk over the matter 
with Aunt Mary. It — it has brought up the 
past,” she added with a little break in her 
voice. And the two girls, seeing how sad 
Letty looked, did not ask her any more ques- 
tions. 

When they reached Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s 
cottage, Violet and Molly, by mutual consent, 
stopped at the gate to let Letty proceed alone. 
But she turned with her own merry laugh. 

“ Why, come along, you dear geese ! There 
isn’t anything private about it,” she laughed. 
“ I declare, look at the disappointment in 
Violet’s face. I do believe she’s been cooking 
up a mystery.” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones came out on the ve- 
randa to meet them. She generally took the 
mornings for her literary work, but always 


14 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

managed to be through in time to greet the 
girls when they came home from the beach, 
to have a little walk or talk all together be- 
fore luncheon. 

The girls made a pretty picture, with their 
fresh young faces and bright summer dresses, 
as they came up the path, arm in arm, and 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones smiled in great content 
as she watched them. 

“ Oh, Aunt Mary,” called Letty, “ do you 
remember Mrs. Drake ? ” 

“ Of course I do, and the funny little circus. 
Why ? Have you heard something about 
her ? ” 

“ I’ve heard from her,” answered Letty, 
waving her letter. “ And we’ve come to you 
for a consultation.” 

“ Mrs. Drake’s is the circus we got Punch 
and Judy from,” explained Violet in an aside 
to Molly. “ I forgot to tell you that. Do 
read the letter aloud, mother, if Letty doesn’t 
mind,” she added. “ She said there wasn’t 
anything private in it and we don’t know 
what it’s all about.” 

“ Of course I don’t mind. Read away, 
please, Aunt Mary. That is, if you can make 


SOMETHING FOR LETTY 15 

it out. Or would you rather have me read 
it? It’s pretty blotty and scrawly, but I’ve 
deciphered it once.” 

“Then you will do it much better justice 
than I could,” laughed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, 
who had surveyed the grimy, misspelled 
letter with some dismay. 

“ Well, here goes. But I’m going to read 
it in good English, so to speak, and you 
can all look at the mistakes afterward, if you 
like. There are some funny ones.” 

They all seated themselves on the veranda, 
Letty perching on the balustrade to get a good 
light on her paper. 

“ 4 Dear little Miss Letty/ ” she began, “ ‘ I’m 
most ashamed to write you, ’deed I am, be- 
cause what I’m about to write ought to have 
been written long ago/ (I hope you all ap- 
preciate my ‘ rendering at sight,’” Letty said 
in a parenthesis.) 

“Do go on,” urged Violet. “It sounds 
like the opening pages of a mystery story. 
Perhaps you are the long-lost grandchild of 
an exiled king and she was the nurse who 
changed you in your cradle.” 

“ My dear child, what sort of books have 


1 6 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


you been reading ! " ejaculated Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones. “ It sounds like a mixture of ' Pina- 
fore ’ and the 1 Duchess.' " 

“ If you are what Violet suggests — I should 
say, suspects — you ought to have three gifts 
with magical properties," laughed Molly 
gayly. “ I’ll present you with a magic cup 
which will appear before you, filled with ice- 
cream soda of any desired flavor, whenever 
you express the wish for it." 

“ And I will give you a magic coin that 
will pay the doctor automatically whenever 
you express your wish too frequently," said 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, always ready to enter 
into a game. 

Violet sought her brain frantically for an 
appropriate gift in her turn. She was not 
accustomed to these little flights of fancy and 
nonsense, but was anxious to keep up with 
the others. 

“ Never mind, Violet-Mary, your gift being 
the third and last, is important, so you think 
up a really marvelous one while I finish the 
letter," advised Letty and went on reading, 
after she had found her place. 

“ 'When your brother Ben died that sum- 


SOMETHING FOR LETTY 17 

mer — you remember, my dear, for all you 
was so young then — I was never quite so 
sorry for any one. Well, as I was saying, 
when Ben signed with Mr. Drake, he gave 
him a little bundle of papers which he asked 
him to keep for him, and to give them to 
you in case anything ever happened to him. 

44 4 Well, something did happen — something 
none of us could ever have expected or been 
afraid of, because he was so awful skilful on 
the trapeze, so quick and sure, but ’ ” 

Letty stopped reading abruptly, her eyes 
filled with tears, and she sat with face averted, 
staring out over the bright, sunlit sea until 
she could recover from her emotion. Ben 
had been her only brother, a good brother to 
her, although rough and careless ; and his 
sudden death had been a terrible shock. 

Her three listeners sat in respectful silence. 
Mrs. Hartwell- Jones changed her seat to one 
on a bench beside the balustrade, where she 
could take one of Letty’s hands and stroke it 
sympathetically. 

Letty was soon ready to go on with her 
letter. 

44 4 But it did happen/” she read, 44 4 and 


1 8 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


when Mr. Drake remembered about those 
papers, why, he couldn’t find them. He felt 
mighty bad about it, of course, but as you re- 
member, a good many troubles rose up and 
fastened on him that summer, and he knew 
they wasn’t important papers, anyhow. At 
least, he supposed they wasn’t. Only he 
would have liked to do what Ben had asked 
him to do — to give them over to you. But 
they wasn’t nowhere to be found. 

“ ‘ But now, I guess you know what’s com- 
ing next. They’ve turned up, that bunch of 
papers and letters, in a funny way, and Mr. 
Drake, he’s most anxious to give ’em back to 
you. The bundle’s all here, sealed up in a big 
envelope, just as Ben give it to him, and he’s 
so relieved that it seems as if he couldn't wait 
to get it into your hands. 

“ ‘ But he isn’t willing to send it to you by 
mail, Miss Letty. He’s afraid it’ll get lost 
again, and he’d be double to blame. He 
wants to know if you can’t come after it? 

“ ‘ 1 forgot to say that we’ve given up the 
circus business, and Mr. Drake has charge of 
a moving picture show here at Narragansett 
Pier, Rhode Island. It pays real well, better’n 


SOMETHING FOR LETTY 19 

the circus ever did, and is heaps easier. We’re 
both gettin’ too old to go about country with 
a circus any more. Besides, this pays better. 

“ ‘ Mr. Drake won’t trust the mail, because 
once he had a letter with some money in it 
sent to him and it never came. But he says 
most likely you’ll be coming up this way on 
one of your automobile trips — heaps and 
heaps of people come here — and you could 
stopover and get the bundle. Anyhow, I told 
him I’d write and see what you’d say about it. 
He’s keepin’ the bundle most careful, but it 
frets him. He’s been right sick, a spell of 
fever and cold, and things fret him easy, so I 
hope you can come. 

“ 4 Do you remember my baby you used to 
carry about and who cried so pitiful after you 
left us? Well, he’s a bouncing boy now, and 
as good as gold. They use him sometimes to 
pose in the moving pictures, when they need 
a baby or small kid. Ain’t he beginning 
young to be an actor ? 

“ 1 My respectful regards to Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones and the other young lady. It seems a 
long time since we were at your party, which 
was very nice. 


20 LE TIT'S GOOD LUCK 


“ * Hoping to hear from you soon, where 
our address is Baily and Drake’s Moving Pic- 
ture Aerodome, Narragansett Pier, Rhode 
Island, I am, 

“ 4 Your obedient servant, 

“ ‘ Susan Drake.’ ” 

“ There, I told you so ! ” exclaimed Violet 
triumphantly, as soon as Letty had stopped 
reading. “ They are important papers, only 
that Mr. Drake knows how careless he was to 
have lost them, and won’t own up, but he’s 
taking very good care not to let them get lost 
a second time, you see. Do you suppose your 
brother had a fortune hidden away some- 
where, Letty ? ” 

“ Oh, no, no,” exclaimed Letty quickly and 
gravely. “ I am quite sure I know what the 
papers are. They are surely the letters my 
mother wrote to Ben whenever he was away 
from us. How glad I shall be to see them ! I 
was never away from my mother while she 
lived, you know, and so I never had any let- 
ters from her. How glad I shall be to have 
these,” she added solemnly. 

“ Of course you will, my darling,” agreed 


SOMETHING FOR LETTY 21 


Mrs. Hartwell- Jones tenderly. “ Do write to 
Mrs. Drake at once to send you the package. 
Ask her to tell Mr. Drake that if he will reg- 
ister the package it will come in perfect 
safety.” 

“ I think it would be great fun to go on a 
motor trip after them, as Mrs. Drake pro- 
poses, n observed Molly, trying to cover a secret 
disappointment she felt in Letty’s practical 
solution of the promised mystery. “ My aunt 
and uncle were talking just the other day 
about a trip. Has Aunt Isabel spoken to you 
about it, Mrs. Hartwell-Jones ? ” 

“ She suggested something of the sort, for 
some time during the summer,” replied Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones, “ but it was all very indefi- 
nite.^ 

“ I know. They didn’t know just where to 
go. Perhaps this about the letters will give 
them an idea. I’ll speak to them about it, 
anyhow, if I may ? ” 

“ It certainly would be no end of fun,” ex- 
claimed Letty, “ but we couldn’t go until 
after the concert, you know.” 

“ Oh, no, of course not. But the concert is 
coming off so soon now.” 


22 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


“ Yes, awfully soon,” agreed Violet a little 
nervously, and the other two girls laughed 
mischievously. 

Just then Katy appeared in the doorway to 
announce luncheon, and Molly rose to go — 
expressing her astonishment at the lateness 
of the hour. 

“ You'll stay, of course, Molly?” said Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones hospitably, but smiling at the 
form, for Molly generally stayed for luncheon. 

“ I’d like to, if you don’t mind ? I do hope 
I’m not an awful bore, Mrs. Hartwell-Jones.” 

“Silly I” answered Violet for her mother, 
tucking her hand fondly into the crook of 
Molly’s elbow. “ You know perfectly well 
we’d all be furious and offended if you didn’t 
stay.” 

The girls chattered about the approaching 
concert ail through luncheon and apparently 
had forgotten about the odd letter — even 
Letty herself. But Mrs. Hartwell-Jones had 
not forgotten and she allowed her imagination 
a little free play. She, at any rate, had not 
been wholly convinced by Letty’s statement 
as to the probable contents of Mr. Drake’s 
bundle of papers. No doubt there were letters 


SOMETHING FOR LETTY 23 

in it, but she felt sure that there was some- 
thing else beside. Mrs. Drake would not have 
used the expression “ papers ” if her husband 
had not got the information from Ben when 
he took the bundle into his care that there was 
something more than mere correspondence. 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones looked across at Letty’s 
animated face with a sudden curious thrill. 
What if her brother Ben had left her a fortune, 
even as Violet had said ? There had always 
been some vague, illusive charm to Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones about her picture of Letty’s 
big, bluff, kindly brother. It would not be 
at all out of keeping with her impression of 
him if after all these years he should turn out 
to be her benefactor. 


CHAPTER II 


THE CONCERT 

“Girls, please don't think me a turn-tail, 
or a silly, or anything horrid,” exclaimed 
Violet, “ but I really can’t go on with my part 
in the concert to-morrow night unless we tell 
mother. I’ve just tried to do as you all want 
me to, but it makes me too miserable. Let 
every one else be surprised, but not mother.” 

“ Why, Violet-Mary, if you feel that way 
about it, of course we’ll tell,” replied Letty 
emphatically. “ We only thought it would 
add to the general fun and Aunt Mary’s 
pleasure.” 

“But that’s just what I’m afraid it won’t 
do. I’ve gone over it all in my mind a 
thousand times, and tried to think it was all 
right, but I can’t. I haven’t said anything 
to any of you before because, well, to tell the 
truth, I was afraid to. I was afraid you girls 
would think me a spoil-sport.” 

24 


THE CONCERT 


25 

Poor Violet was nearly crying by this time 
from nervousness and the consciousness of her 
own weakness. Letty flew across the room 
and took her protectingly into her arms. 

“ You poor, dear little goose,” she cried, 
“ that is the very last thing in the world any 
one would think of calling you ! Let’s Molly 
and you and me form ourselves into a com- 
mittee of three to go and tell Aunt Mary all 
about it, at once. It’s time the meeting ad- 
journed, anyway — at least as far as I’m con- 
cerned, for I have to go to the station to meet 
Meta.” 

From the day the girls had begun their 
plans for getting up a concert, which was to 
be given for the benefit of the local church of 
Sea Side village, Molly Wilson was determined 
that Violet should take some part in it. 

She proposed a recitation, a part in one of 
the little plays, for although the girls spoke 
of the entertainment as a concert — for short, 
as Letty expressed it — it was in reality to offer 
a great variety of features. But Violet shrank 
from any suggestion on the plea that she had 
never done any of. those things and would 
simply be scared to death to begin. 


26 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 


At length, by persistent coaxing and 
questioning, Molly extracted from Violet, 
in a supremely confidential moment, the fact 
that she had one accomplishment ; that there 
was one musical instrument upon which she 
could play fairly well — the concertina. Violet 
was ashamed of her commonplace, plebeian 
attainment, but Molly fairly screamed with 

joy. 

“ Oh, just the thing for the concert ! You’ll 
surely do it ? Let’s tell Letty at once ! ” 

“ I don’t mind if you tell Letty, as a dead 
secret, but I don’t really believe I’d have the 
courage to play it in public,” protested Violet. 
“ Besides,” she added as a conclusive argument, 
“ I haven’t got a concertina.” 

But the girls found this last difficulty one 
of the easiest to overcome. They combined 
the remnants of their allowances and thought 
the amount quite sufficient to buy an instru- 
ment. 

“ What do they cost, Violet-Mary ? ” asked 
Letty practically. 

“ I don’t know, I’m sure. The one I used 
to play on at Lyme Regis belonged to a little 
girl in the village who had never learned it. 


THE CONCERT 


2 7 

She won it as a premium for selling soap, or 
reels of cotton. When I came away I asked 
Mother Moore to send it back to her.” 

“ Well, I don’t believe they cost very much 
anyway,” put in Molly, the optimist. “ We’ll 
see what our money will buy. But if Violet- 
Mary’s appearance at the concert is to be a 
dead secret, how can we buy it ? Neither 
Aunt Isabel nor Mrs. Hartwell-Jones will let 
us go up to town by ourselves. We’ll have 
to confide in somebody.” 

“ Then let it be Mr. Jack Beckwith,” said 
Letty with conviction. “ He’s as safe with a 
secret as a locked safety deposit vault with the 
key lost. I’ll ask him to get it this very next 
Monday when he goes up to town, and bring 
it down himself on Wednesday.” 

“My, yes, don’t let him send it! Every 
one’s curiosity would be on the rampage if 
they heard that one of us had received a 
mysterious package.” 

“I’ll give him what money we have — are 
you sure you can spare all that, Molly ? Here, 
you’d better keep out a quarter. The sundae 
craze may prove too much for you before the 
beginning of the month. And I’ll tell him 


28 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


that if they cost more than this, to buy a 
second-hand one. I don’t see why -a second- 
hand one wouldn’t do, in any event. How 
about it, Violet-Mary ? ” 

“ I suppose it would be all right if the 
bellows isn’t punctured,” replied Violet doubt- 
fully. “ Of course Mr. Jack would try it. I’d 
like to have it as soon as possible, to practice. 
I may have forgotten how.” 

Accordingly the concertina was bought, and 
Mr. Jack Beckwith, when he understood for 
what purpose the instrument was intended, 
took the liberty of adding enough money out 
of his own private “ allowance ” to buy a 
creditable one. 

The girls had great fun inventing times and 
places for Violet to practice so that no one 
should hear, and Letty and Molly were really 
surprised to hear how much sweetness and 
expression Violet could extract from what to 
them had always been an impossible musical 
implement. 

Violet was very much at home with her 
concertina, but she still felt timid about a 
public appearance, so Letty’s fertile brain con- 
cocted a little scene. 


THE CONCERT 


29 

“ I know the very thing ! ” she exclaimed. 
“ You and I will dress like Italian peasants, 
Violet-Mary, and we’ll come on the stage 
together. That will be easier than for you to 
do it alone, won’t it? And I’ll sing some 
song to your accompaniment — an Italian 
street song — -just to get you started. Then 
for an encore you’ll have got up enough cour- 
age to go on by yourself and show them 
what you really can do.” 

“ But she must appear at least twice on the 
programme,” declared Molly firmly. 

“ So she shall. The second time she can 
come on — let me see — why, just after your 
farce, Molly, of course. Keep that outdoor 
scene with the house in the background and 
Violet-Mary can come on as the peasant again ; 
it’s always easier to do things when you’re 
dressed up in some sort of costume, Violet- 
Mary.” 

“ Yes, always,” agreed Molly. “ It takes 
you out of yourself. And you can play in 
front of the house, Violet-Mary, just like a 
real street musician, and at the end one of us 
will appear and toss you some pennies. That 
will be very realistic and no end of fun.” 


3 o LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

So the plans for the entertainment went 
along with perfect smoothness, and splendid 
success promised to crown their efforts. Letty 
had planned a certain deed of great kindness, 
which she unfolded to Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, 
prefacing her confidence with the request for 
permission to invite Meta Lowell to visit her. 

“ Don’t you think it would be nice, Aunt 
Mary,” she said, “ if we could make one of the 
numbers on the programme that scene from 
La Malade Imaginaire between Argan and 
Luison, and let Meta do Argan ? You know 
she was terribly disappointed that time she 
missed doing it at school, although she’s 
never said much about it to any of us. It 
really wasn’t her fault, either. She would 
have got there in plenty of time if the motor 
hadn’t broken down. And I’ve always felt 
secretly selfish to have taken her part away 
from her. If she could do it again, here, I’d 
feel as if she’d got her chance back somehow. 
Do you think Mrs. Somers would let little 
Ellen do Luison again ? ” 

“ I’ll ask her, myself, Letty mine. I think 
it very sweet of you to think about Meta,” 
and Mrs. Hartwell-Jones embraced her 


THE CONCERT 31 

warmly. “ But do you think Meta can 
come ? ” 

“Oh, I think so. She is at Watch Hill, 
you know, and they have their motor there. 
She could motor down to New London and 
take the boat across to Sag Harbor, and come 
up here by train. Nobody would object to 
her traveling just from Sag Harbor to here 
by herself.” 

“ I am sure that would be a perfectly safe 
journey for any one so self-reliant as Meta,” 
smiled Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, “ so go .ahead 
and invite her, Letty mine, and I’ll enclose 
a note to her mother.” 

Meta accepted her invitation only too 
eagerly and the days sped busily, happily by. 
Letty did not feel particularly disappointed 
when Violet confessed her imperative desire 
to have her mother share the secret of her 
own part in the coming entertainment. She 
was rather relieved, indeed. Letty had never 
had any secrets from her Aunt Mary, except 
the secret of a discontented, rebellious spirit, 
which is a form of secret always best locked 
up in one’s innermost soul and never con- 
fided, even to one’s self, until it languishes 


32 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

and dies out from sheer neglect and lack of 
sympathy. 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones was not exactly carried 
away with enthusiasm over the idea of her 
daughter playing a concertina in public, but 
she appreciated heartily Molly’s generous anx- 
iety to have Violet share in the good time, 
and felt that Letty had made the best of the 
occasion with her plan of peasant costumes. 
She expressed only her pleased surprise and 
heartiest good wishes, and Violet went to 
work with more eagerness and interest than 
she had yet shown. 

“ I’ll go and practice up in my own room, 
while you are at the station getting Meta,” 
she said happily. “ It’s a great comfort to 
think I don’t have to huddle myself away in 
Mrs. Emlin’s loft, or be driven down the 
beach to hide in the dunes.” 

“ So that is why you girls have taken such 
a fancy lately to that remote corner of the 
beach,” laughed her mother. “ I’ve often 
watched poor little Punch and Judy toiling 
across that soft beach road with a load of you, 
and felt a little sorry for the ponies.” 

“ Oh, it has done them good, Aunt Mary. 


THE CONCERT 


33 

They were getting disgracefully fat, and you 
know Mr. Parsons said that was bad for 
them. ,, 

“ But you must also remember that they 
are not so young as they once were, my dear.” 

“ Oh, you little darlings, surely you aren’t 
growing old and stiff and short-breathed,” 
cried Letty, and she ran out to the gate to 
fondle her pets, who were standing there in 
philosophic patience until it was time for 
Letty to drive them to the station. 

“ I hope Letty isn’t overdoing in her zeal 
to make the concert a success,” exclaimed 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones with an anxious little 
sigh as she stood watching the pony carriage 
out of sight. “ She doesn’t seem listless or 
languid to you girls, does she?” 

“ No, mother, of course not,” rejoined 
Violet positively. “ It seems to me that 
Letty gets better every day. She’s got lots 
more energy than she had when we first came 
down, and is more interested in everything 
that is going on. I think the concert’s doing 
her lots of good.” 

“ And how about my own precious 
daughter?” asked her mother fondly. “It 


34 LE TTY’S GOOD LUCK 

is not fretting you to do your part ? You 
must not let Molly bully you into doing 
something that gives you pain or worry. ” 

“ I don’t mind a bit, mother, now that I 
know you think it all right. I was afraid 
you might think the concertina common or 
vulgar. That is the reason I have never 
spoken about playing it.” 

“ Naturally it is not in the exalted rank of 
the harp or violin, and I am not trying to pre- 
tend that it is, dear little daughter, but Letty’s 
adaptation of its use will give the programme 
a pleasing variety ; and it does make me 
very happy, my darling, to know that you are 
strong enough and interested enough to want 
to take part in the life of the girls about you. 
It means so much to a girl, as she grows older, 
Violet mine, to be able to adapt herself to 
whatever surroundings she may find herself 
among, and to be deservedly popular among 
her mates.” 

“ I know, mother,” whispered Violet tremu*- 
lously, creeping close to her mother’s side. 
“ It does please me so — makes me feel all 
thrilly and furry inside somehow — when I 
know that the girls like me and want me with 


THE CONCERT 


35 

them. But it’s awfully hard sometimes to 
keep on. It’s so hard not to criticize or be 
afraid when they’re silly or — or a little 
rough.” 

“ You are conquering your shyness wonder- 
fully, my dear, and I am very proud of your 
efforts. Don’t allow yourself to be frightened. 
Don’t think of yourself or your own feelings 
at all, but ask yourself what you can do to 
make your comrades happy or comfortable.” 

“ But they all seem so very capable of 
making themselves comfortable and happy, 
mother.” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones smiled and frowned. 

“ You speak more truly than you realize, 
dear, of the modern tendencies. But see, 
there is the pony carriage coming back with 
Letty and Meta, both chattering at once as 
hard as they can,” and Mrs. Hartwell-Jones 
as she spoke moved forward to the gate to 
welcome Letty’s friend. 

They had scarcely alighted when Mary 
Beckwith came flying down the road, the evi- 
dent agitation of her manner betraying a 
greater excitement than Meta’s coming alone 
could have roused! 


36 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

“ Girls, oh, girls, ” she gasped breathlessly, 
and then kissed Meta and shook hands all 
round while recovering her breath. “ It’s so 
nice to have you here, Meta, and I’m going to 
send little Ellen straight over to practice her 
part with you, for it’s my private opinion, 
publicly expressed, that she has forgotten 
every word of it. She won’t say a line to me, 
although Madame Henri says she rattled off a 
few sentences to her the other day, and then 
was overtaken by shyness, Madame Henri 
says. I say forgetfulness. I never saw little 
Ellen shy. Or else it was pure contrariness. 
Thank goodness the child’s mother will be 
home to-night. We can’t do a thing with her 
or Budsey. Their latest accomplishment, 
Letty, is to recite ‘ The Walrus and the Car- 
penter ’ together, as a dialogue, and they want 
to do that at the concert, instead of little Ellen 
being Luison. Of course I headed off any 
such scheme — after bringing Meta all the way 
here and everything — but mercy on us, girls, 
think of my not having told the news I am 
just bursting with. Who do you think has 
come to Sea Side? ” 

“ Who? ” chorused the girls, duly mystified. 


THE CONCERT 


37 

“ Why, Miss Sarah Terlowe, the famous ac- 
tress ! She is going to stay at the Inn and will 
surely come to the concert. Think of it I ” 

“ Who said so ? ” 

“ I saw her with my very own eyes, getting 
out of the hotel bus as I came here, and I 
asked the porter and he said it was.” 

“ Did you ever hear of anything so excit- 
ing ! ” exclaimed Letty and Violet in chorus, 
while Meta added solemnly : 

“ Then I came down on the train with her ! 
I thought her face was very familiar. Such a 
sweet, dear face ! And she was so quietly 
dressed. Oh, dear, girls, why didn’t I take in 
the situation and pick up her handkerchief, or 
book, or do something to make her speak to 
me I What a lost opportunity ! ” groaned 
Meta. 

“ Never mind, Meta. Perhaps she’ll ask to 
have the performer presented to her after the 
concert to-morrow night,” laughed Letty ex- 
citedly. “ Mary, don’t you think we’d better 
call a special rehearsal this afternoon ? ” 

“ Yes, I most certainly do, and I must get 
after little Ellen. Oh, no, thanks, dear Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones. I can’t stay for luncheon, 


3 B LETTT'S good luck 

much as I’d love to. I’ll see you all later. 
It’s awfully nice to think you’re really here, 
Meta. Isn’t Sea Side lovely? Shall we say 
three for the rehearsal, Letty, and at our 
house? ” 

“ What — another rehearsal ? ” groaned Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones, who had only rejoined the 
little group in time to hear the end of Mary’s 
speech. “ Don’t overdo it, please, girls.” 

“ But, Aunt Mary, we must do our very 
bestest, now that we are to have a real actress 
in the audience,” laughed Letty. “ Oh, what 
a lark it is all going to be. Three cheers for 
the concert ! ” 


CHAPTER III 


AN ERRAND OF MERCY 

“ I thought you said Sea Side was a quiet 
place, Letty Grey,” exclaimed Meta over the 
breakfast table the morning after the con- 
cert. “ We have at least four engagements 
for to-day, and I haven’t had time to write 
anything but a telegram to my mother since 
I got here.” 

Letty answered a little abstractedly. She 
was experiencing the dull, generally let-down 
feeling one is apt to have after the climax of a 
successful undertaking. 

But had the concert been a real success ? 
The hall had been crowded, the applause 
hearty and well-sustained, and the numbers 
on the somewhat overlong programme had 
followed one another with very few delays. 
And, finally, the Ladies’ Aid Society of the 
village had expressed in extravagant terms 
their gratitude and surprise at the goodly sum 
39 


4 o LE TTY'S GOOD LUCK 

deposited in their hands at the end of the 
evening. But had it been really good ? 

Miss Terlowe’s behavior had been dis- 
appointing. She had insisted upon being 
seated in a remote, inconspicuous corner of 
the room and, instead of fulfilling certain fond 
hopes, secretly cherished in the minds of most 
of the performers, that she would — if not 
actually ask to be presented, at least gra- 
ciously allow them to be presented to and 
congratulated by her. But instead she had 
actually retired before the end. 

Letty, her eye at the peep-hole in the cur- 
tain, saw Miss Terlowe rise, and realized with 
dismay the significance of the move. She 
rushed off the stage and reached the side hall 
just in time to catch a fleeting glimpse of the 
retreating figure and to hear her say, with 
gracious voice and tired eyes, to the man- 
ager : 

“ A very amusing evening. Who was the 
little girl who sang so well ? ” 

This impersonal praise afforded some balm 
to Letty’s soul, for she had been the only 
singer, except in the glee choruses; but she 
also noticed, with shrewd perception, that 


AN ERRAND OF MERCT 41 

Miss Terlowe had not waited for a reply to 
her polite little speech. She had not really 
wanted to know who the singer was. 

But Meta and Violet were full of the event, 
and Mrs. Hartwell-Jones seemed very well 
satisfied. 

“ Perhaps Pm only tired,” thought Letty. 
“ It was awfully hard work and I guess Pm 
not quite over that nasty scarlet fever. Why, 
a year ago I’d have been all cock-a-hoop over 
it as a brilliant success ! Well, some day I’ll 
do something to make them all really proud 
of me. I’ll make Miss Terlowe really want 
to know who the singer is.” 

Then she came out of her abstraction and 
joined the general talk. Mary Beckwith came 
in, before breakfast was over, to lend the 
weight of her opinion and that of her whole 
family to the general verdict of success, and 
the group had scarcely seated themselves on 
the veranda before others of the performers 
dropped in to indulge in the delightful 
pleasure of “ talking it all over.” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones fled, at length, to the 
sanctity of her writing room at the back of 
the house, reminding Letty and Meta that 


42 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

they had an engagement to play tennis at half- 
past ten. 

Meta’s visit was an unbroken round of gayety 
and excitement, but she could stay only a few 
days, which perhaps was for the best, Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones thought privately, if such a 
pace were to be kept up during her entire 
visit. After her departure, motored down to 
Sag Harbor in great state by Mr. Emlin, Molly 
Wilson’s uncle, the girls naturally relapsed 
into a listless period of reaction. 

Letty had been keenly disappointed by her 
repeated failures to see again the distinguished 
actress stopping at the Inn. Miss Terlowe 
took her meals in her private sitting-room 
and the only glimpses the girls ever got of her 
were an occasional whisking by in her motor 
or, in the dusk of the summer evening, her 
flitting form, wrapped in a silk raincoat, on 
the side path leading from the Inn to the 
bathing beach, at which eccentric hour she 
chose to bathe, accompanied only by her maid. 

“Just because she is great, I don’t see why 
she need be so terribly exclusive,” grumbled 
Letty crossly one day. “ It’s a well-known 
fact in — in — what do you call the study of 


AN ERRAND OF MERCY 43 

human nature ? — that the truly great people 
are the simplest. But I don’t call it simple 
to hold yourself at arm’s length from every- 
body, and act as if every one else in the world 
were non-existent.” 

“ Miss Terlowe is not very well, Letty, dear. 
I was told that she came here specially to be 
quiet.” 

“ Well, she’s certainly getting what she 
came for. But if she’s so terribly anxious to 
be quiet, why did she come to a big hotel ? 
Why didn’t she take a nice, obscure little 
cottage somewhere ? ” 

“ Nice, obscure little cottages don’t happen 
to be set down just wherever one might like 
to have them, and perhaps Miss Terlowe could 
not afford a house, just for herself.” 

“ Could not afford it ! ” ejaculated Letty in 
surprise. “ Why, I had an idea that actresses 
— successful ones — were always terribly rich, 
and could afford anything they wanted, from 
a diamond tiara to a Pekinese pug-dog.” 

“ Naturally, I do not know anything about 
Miss Terlowe’s fortune or income,” laughed 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, “but I could easily 
understand how a sensible woman would feel 


44 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

the extravagance of a complete establishment 
merely for her own comfort. She is too tired 
to care to entertain and besides, there would 
be the burden of housekeeping. So you see, 
Letty mine, there is some reason for her going 
to a quiet, retired Inn like this.” 

“ Well, of course she has a right to do as 
she chooses, but it certainly is tantalizing to 
have her right in our midst, as it were, and 
yet not be able even to say how-do-you-do to 
her. It’s like those tiresome 4 keep off the 
grass ’ signs that used to irritate me so when 
I was little. Why don’t you call on Miss 
Terlowe, Aunt Mary? Celebrities ought to 
know each other.” 

44 Thank you for the pretty compliment, my 
dear, but I respect Miss Terlowe’s desire for 
privacy. Moreover, my name would convey 
nothing to her, if she heard it. I am sure 
she has never read a single one of my stories 
for children, nor even given one as a Christmas 
present to any of her small nephews or 
nieces.” 

44 Oh, do you suppose she has nephews and 
nieces ? ” asked Letty eagerly. 

44 It’s a very natural supposition. Why ? ” 


AN ERRAND OF MERCT 45 

“ I should like to think she had ; and 
brothers and sisters who are just like other 
every-day people ; and even a father and 
mother. It would make her so much more 
human/’ 

“ You dear little goose ! You must learn 
not to keep putting people up on pedestals in 
that highly romantic, exalted way. They 
will never be able to keep their balance. If 
you ever get a chance to become acquainted 
with your idols, their pedestals will begin to 
rock before your eyes until they tumbledown 
onto the solid ground of real life and give you 
a great and most unnecessary disappointment. 

“ I am not meaning to criticize your admira- 
tion of greatness, Letty mine, only be a little 
more practical about it. Look at the other 
side of success. Consider the privations, the 
hard work, the patient drudgery that go to 
make up any form of successful achievement, 
and admire the force of will and character that 
can win greatness. There are very, very few 
brilliant coups in the world of success, Letty, 
dear — no short-cuts to fame ; only the long, 
long, dusty, often tiresome and monotonous 
road of work and struggle.” As she spoke, 


46 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

she turned and caught Letty in her arms with 
an impulsive embrace. 

“ I am saying this to you, my precious little 
girl, because you know — we all know — that 
some day you may be numbered among the 
great ones of the earth, and I want you to 
understand the road you must travel.” Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones’s voice was very grave as she 
spoke these last words, and Letty felt solemn 
and awed. 

“ Oh, Aunt Mary, do you really and truly 
think so? I do get so up and downy about 
my voice. Some days I can believe almost 
anything of it — I even picture myself in Grand 
Opera ; then other days I get so down-and- 
out-y and think we are all silly and mistaken. 
You know how it is?” 

“ I do, indeed, my darling. We all have 
to struggle against those ups and downs, 
especially those of us who are gifted — or bur- 
dened — with any special talent in greater or 
lesser degree.” 

“ It can be a burden, can’t it?” ejaculated 
Letty eagerly. “ Aunt Mary, you are such a 
comfort. You always understand me. Not 
only what I say and feel, but the other things 


AN ERRAND OF MERCT 47 

that I can’t say, and am not even sure that I 
feel until you put them into words for me.” 

“ That is a doubtful compliment, I must 
say,” laughed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones. “ I hope 
you aren’t accusing me of putting ideas into 
your head.” 

“ Oh, Aunt Mary, indeed no; just bringing 
out my own weak little seedlings of thought ! 
So often I want to have a good time and the 
objection comes up whether it might not hurt 
my voice. It began last winter when I went 
on the house party at Sunnycrest. Madame 
Henri was simply horrified at the idea of my 
risking a chill or wet feet from the snow. 
And when I was sickest with my scarlet 
fever, I used to get so scared for fear it would 
spoil my vocal chords. 

“ Do you know, Aunt Mary — it sounds silly 
and you may laugh at me if you want to, but 
every morning when I wake up, what do you 
suppose I do, the very first thing ? I sound 
a note, just to make sure my voice hasn’t gone 
in the night.” 

“ No, I won’t laugh, of course, child ; I 
understand very well. It is the same with 
us all. I often sit down at my writing table 


48 LE TTY’S GOOD LUCK 

feeling that I haven’t an idea left in my head, 
and privately convinced that I shall never 
put pen to paper again except to write letters 
or pay bills. Madame Henri did quite right 
to make you realize the importance of taking 
care of your voice, but don’t get monomania 
on the subject, Letty dear. And now, to 
change the subject, how would you and Violet 
like to take Punch and Judy and go on an 
errand of mercy for me? Down at Bear 
Creek — that poor little fishing village next 
below us down the coast, you know — is a poor 
widow with several small children for whom 
we have been collecting a bundle of clothes 
and provisions. Mrs. Emlin was to have 
taken the packages, but her motor is out of 
order, and Mrs. Somers has gone to town.” 

“ 1 think it would be great fun. You know 
I always love playing Lady Bountiful. Are 
there any sweeties we can take to the chil- 
dren?” exclaimed Letty joyfully. 

She and Violet were soon on their way, and 
the ponies, in spite of their age and a some- 
what heavy load, trotted briskly along the 
hard, smooth highroad that paralleled the 
coa3t. It was a delicious summer day. The 


AN ERRAND OF MERCT 49 

air sparkled with heat but a fresh salt breeze 
gave a tang to the summer languor that was 
stimulating. 

“ There’s no doubting the fact that sea air 
agrees with Punch and Judy,” laughed Letty. 
“Just see how cheerfully they trot along, 
Violet-Mary, as easily and steadily as two- 
year-olds. Why, they are almost frisky, bless 
their hearts !” 

The sun was shining in a cloudless sky of 
palest, illimitable blue ; the sea lay placid 
and shimmering like a changeful aqua-marine 
against its golden setting of glinting sand ; 
and far out on the horizon was faintly visible 
a picturesque sloop with idle, flapping sails 
under the becalmed noontide. 

“Like ‘a painted ship, upon a painted 
ocean,’ ” quoted Letty softly, and Violet 
startled her exceedingly by bursting into 
tears. 

“ Why, Violet-Mary, whatever in the world 
is the matter ! ” cried Letty in amazement. 

“Nothing — nothing!” sobbed Violet, and 
then added miserably, drying her sudden 
tears sheepishly, “ You always do everything 
so wonderfully, Letty, and I’m such a poor, 


50 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

weak, useless thing. There was your glorious 
singing at the concert the other night, which 
just made every one hold his breath, while 
all I could do was to squeak out a cheap little 
tune on a vulgar, third-rate instrument. And 
you know so much — always thinking of the 
right line of poetry to quote or suitable prov- 
erb to say. And your strength and capabil- 
ity in driving. In spite of all you and 
mother say about Punch and Judy being old 
and gentle and all that, why, it would scare 
me to death to hold the reins and feel that I 
had to be responsible for where and how they 
went.” 

Letty stared at her in astonishment. 

“ Why, bless your dear little heart ! ” she 
ejaculated. “ Violet-Mary, I was never so 
amazed in my life, never ! I thought you’d 
got over all those bashful fits long ago. To 
tell the truth,” she added with an effort, 
“ I’ve been inclined to feel a wee bit jealous 
now and then — of your intimacy with Molly 
Wilson. There^ that sounds mean and silly ; 
please forget that I said it.” 

“ Indeed, I shall not. It makes me proud 
and warm inside to know that you really 


AN ERRAND OF MERCT 51 

want me to love you first and best, which of 
course I do, Letty ; you know that,” she 
added earnestly. “ Only Molly — well, Molly 
seems more like me, somehow. She’s bright 
and clever and all that, like you, but she isn’t 
— upon my word, I don’t know how to say it, 
Letty, except that she isn’t as soaring as you. 
I guess I must feel your future greatness crop- 
ping out in you,” she ended simply. 

“ Nonsense ! ” laughed Letty, but redden- 
ing with pleasure and feeling immensely flat- 
tered just the same. “ And as to your being 
afraid to drive dear old Punch and Judy, 
why, I’m going to get you over that this 
minute. It’s all your imagination, you know. 
They don’t really need reins at all, they mind 
the voice so well and have so much sense of 
their own.” 

As she spoke, Letty drew up the ponies at 
the side of the road and insisted upon Violet’s 
changing places with her. At first Violet 
held the reins in a loose, nervous fashion and 
jerked Punch and Judy anxiously to the side 
of the road whenever a motor or a carriage 
came in sight. But a few words of direction 
and encouragement from Letty, and the sedate 


5 2 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

behavior of the ponies themselves soon em- 
boldened her and by the time Bear Creek was 
reached, to her own surprise and delight, 
Violet was driving as if with a practiced hand, 
and furthermore, was enjoying the experience 
immensely. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE ERRAND OF MERCY AND ANOTHER 

The girls soon found the house at which 
they were to leave their packages. It was 
a tiny, forlorn cottage situated in the meanest 
locality of the poverty-stricken little hamlet. 
The whole village was a pathetic spectacle of 
want and privation and should be a constant 
reproach to the eyes of those prosperous 
summer people whose expensive houses lined 
the shore for miles on either side, and 
whose expensive motors whizzed unmindfully 
through the melancholy settlement, most of 
them considering it, when they noticed it at 
all, merely as an unfortunate blot upon an 
otherwise charming landscape. 

“That is the house, I think,” said Letty, 
pointing to it. “ The grocery man said it was 
the last house on the row. Oh, Violet, aren't 
you glad we’re going to bring a little comfort, 
at least, into such dismal lives! ” 

53 


54 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

Violet stopped the ponies and Letty jumped 
out and tied one of the reins around the 
rickety top rail of a decayed fence. Then she 
and Violet collected as many of the bundles 
as they could carry at once and bore them to 
the door of the cottage. The door was ajar 
and the girls responded to a faint voice 
bidding them enter. 

They found a very thin, very tired looking 
woman leaning back listlessly in a wooden 
chair with a broken rocker, holding a baby of 
about three years old, almost as thin and tired 
looking as herself. A child of eight stood in 
front of the small cooking stove at the opposite 
side of the room, trying to coax a fire to burn 
enough to boil a leaky kettle. Through the 
opened back door two other children, mere 
babies, could be seen playing dully with a box 
of empty spools. The utter dejectedness of 
the whole place made Letty want to cry out 
against the injustice of life. 

“ When I am great, and make money with 
my singing,” she told herself fiercely, “ I’ll 
give it all to helping poor people to live.” 

And it was actually from that moment that 
Letty really saw her career take definite and 


THE ERRAND OF MERCT 55 

possible form before her. Something inside 
her woke up and substituted a firm resolve in 
place of the misty dreams of future greatness. 
“ What if” was ousted by “ When.” 

“ We have come from Mrs. Hartwell-Jones,” 
she said hesitatingly as she and Violet entered 
and put down their burden. “ She and several 
other ladies heard you were ill and sent these 
to — to help you and the children until you can 
get well again.” 

The woman’s eyes grew large and luminous 
with thankfulness and renewed hope, but she 
was literally too weak from hunger to rise or 
even to express her gratitude in more than a 
few broken words. 

“ There’s more,” added Violet brusquely, 
and ran from the room, followed by Letty. 

Outside, in the sunshine, the two girls faced 
each other in a state of dismay bordering on 
terror. 

“ Why, she’s actually starving, Violet- 
Mary,” sobbed Letty, clasping her hands and 
struggling to keep back her emotion. “ Think 
of any one actually starving with so much to 
eat all around, and me refusing food at almost 
every meal ! ” 


56 L E TTY'S GOOD LUCK 

“ Well, we mustn’t waste time talking about 
it,” replied Violet practically. “ We’ve just 
got to cook ’em a meal, that’s all, and hurry 
up about it, too. And on the way home, 
don’t you think we’d better send the doctor 
to see that woman ? Mother won’t mind 
paying him. I wish I hadn’t spent all our 
allowances on that stupid concertina,” she 
added with a sigh. 

They carried in their second load and then, 
without so much as asking leave, proceeded to 
investigate the possibility of cooking some of 
the food they had brought. Letty could find* 
no scrap of fuel except the few bits of wood 
the child was poking vainly into the stove, so 
she untied Punch and Judy and drove quickly 
away to fetch a bag of coal. 

Violet, meanwhile, bustled around the room, 
smiling encouragement to the woman and 
making friends with the baby. She cut bread 
and butter for the children, who stood around 
her in subdued excitement, whispering to one 
another their belief that she was a beautiful 
fairy. Violet gave the oldest Smith child ten 
cents to buy a quart of milk at the grocery, 
and by the time Letty arrived with the coal 


THE ERRAND OF MERCT S7 

and a new kettle, Violet had the table spread 
and the first pangs of acute hunger assuaged. 

Letty had insisted upon the man’s loading 
the bag of coal into the pony carriage, as that 
seemed the only immediate prospect of getting 
it delivered, and she and Violet, after vain 
efforts to carry the heavy, clumsy bundle up 
to the house, were obliged to abandon it at 
the gate and carry a bucketful indoors. The 
children found the labor of transferring the 
rest of the coal by pailfuls from the bag to the 
bin a fairy play. 

Mrs. Smith leaned forward in her chair, 
when the stove was finally lighted, as if the 
glow of it was welcome to her, even on that 
hot day ; and when Violet brought her a cup 
of tea, it was like nectar. She held the now 
sleeping baby, replete with bread and milk, 
in the crook of one arm and the cup of tea in 
her free hand, sipping and watching with elo- 
quent eyes the simple transforming of her 
humble dwelling into a home, where, for the 
moment at least, comfort and plenty abided. 

“ I used to help cook our meals when I was 
with Mother Moore in Lyme Regis,” said 
Violet eagerly, “ and I don’t believe I’ve for- 


58 LETTY'S GOOD LUCK 

gotten how. Let me try my hand at the 
cooking, Letty. What is there to bake, boil 
or fry ? ” 

The contents of some of the packages re- 
vealed a glass jar of soup, a cup of which was 
heated and given to Mrs. Smith as soon as 
she had finished her tea ; and some slices of 
cold meat which Violet warmed over in a 
savory butter sauce and fed to the ravenous 
children. 

Indeed, the girls used up nearly all the 
provisions in preparing the dinner, but that 
one meal was a glorious feast, and put new 
heart into the patient, enduring little family. 
Mrs. Smith’s voice came back as her body 
and soul were cheered and heartened by good 
food and eager sympathy, and she was both 
ready and anxious to tell her little story. 

It was, after all, a very commonplace, brief 
history : her husband, a poor fisherman, had 
died two years before and left her to support 
her family. There was practically no work 
by which a woman could earn money in that 
tiny village. During the summer she could 
get washing to do for the summer boarders in 
the neighborhood, but the season was short 


THE ERRAND OF MERCT 59 

and the proceeds of her two or three months* 
labor had to last the family for the entire year 
unless, as occasionally happened, one or two 
of her patrons remained later than the regular 
summer season. This year she had fallen ill 
and consequently was unable to work at all. 
The family had struggled along patiently on 
the fast dwindling savings, hoping for a 
miracle which, indeed, had happened. 

“ I was sure God would not let us starve,” 
Mrs. Smith said pathetically. “ ‘ Not a 
sparrow falleth,’ you know, so I was sure He 
would help us as soon as He got time, if we 
could only wait. And sure enough, in come 
you two white angels, if you’ll pardon my 
making so free.” 

“ And we’re coming again, many, many 
times, dear Mrs. Smith,” exclaimed Letty, 
springing to her feet with a sudden realization 
that they had remained a long time. “ We’ll 
be back in the morning, and this afternoon 
the doctor will stop in to see how you are get- 
ting on. We’ll have to help you to get well 
enough to work again, you know.” 

The girls were very solemn as they drove 
slowly homeward. 


6o LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 


“ Something’s wrong with the universe, 
Violet-Mary,” remarked Letty sagely, as if she 
had just discovered a new and surprising fact. 
“ Think of it ! Most of us grumble when we 
get an attack of indigestion, due generally to 
overeating, and scold the doctor for not get- 
ting us well in a hurry so as to have a good 
time and overeat again. But that poor woman 
was prayerfully grateful for a cup of weak 
soup and bread and butter, and all she asked, 
ready to thank us on bended knees for the 
boon, was to be made well enough to work 
her fingers to the bone to earn money enough 
to furnish her children with less than the 
necessities of life ! It seems wrong to think 
of sitting down to a full dinner table.” 

“ And yet we’re both hungry,” added Violet. 
“ If I hadn’t seen what we have just seen, I’d 
say I was simply starving ! ” 

They both shivered at the simple word, so 
cruel in its real, deeper meaning. 

“ Don’t ! ” Letty begged. “ I shall never 
say that again unless it is true, and oh, I pray 
I may never have it happen. Why, Violet, 
think what it means to be starving I Wouldn’t 
you rob the first bake-shop you came to ? I 


THE ERRAND OF MERCY 61 


don’t think I should have any moral principles 
left after the first pinch of acute hunger. But 
bless me, what’s this ! ” she interrupted her- 
self with a little gasp. 

“ This ” was a large gray touring car drawn 
up at one side of the road just ahead of them. 
The chauffeur was bending over the front 
wheel and a lady, simply clad in white linen, 
was walking nervously up and down the dusty 
road. 

“ Letty, I believe — it surely is — Miss Ter- 
lowe ! ” exclaimed Violet in a breathless whis- 
per, “ and her automobile is in trouble. Shall 
we stop ? ” 

“ Stop ? Well, I should just say so, Violet- 
Mary. We can’t stop quick enough,” ejacu- 
lated Letty. And as if in contradiction to 
her words, she urged Punch and Judy into a 
faster pace, much to their indignant surprise 
and Violet’s distress, for she was holding the 
reins again. 

The speed lasted for but a moment, and at 
Letty’s direction, Violet stopped the ponies at 
the opposite side of the road at the point where 
the motor car was standing, and both girls 
jumped out and ran across. Miss Terlowe 


62 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 


had seen their approach and paused expect- 
antly. 

“ Oh, Miss Terlowe,” exclaimed Letty dif- 
fidently, “are you in trouble?' Can we help 
you ? 77 

The great actress glanced from the two eager 
faces before her to the low, wide pony carriage 
they had abandoned with such complete con- 
fidence in their ponies. 

“ Yes, I am in trouble/ 7 she answered in the 
low, expressive voice that had moved thou- 
sands to laughter and tears. “ The front 
spring of my car is broken. The man is try- 
ing to brace it up enough to crawl back to a 
garage, but it is slow business. 77 

“ And it is long past luncheon time, I’m 
afraid. We’re late, too. Won’t you let us 
drive you back to Sea Side? 77 

“ Is there room ? 77 asked the actress, looking 
amused and relieved. 

“ Plenty. One of us can sit in the rumble. 
We’d be so delighted to have you. 77 

“ But the ponies. Are they strong enough 
to bear such an addition to their load ? 77 

“ Oh, yes, 77 exclaimed Violet eagerly. 
“ They often carry three — often ! 77 



“can we help you?” 






















































































































THE ERRAND OF MERCT 63 

“ And if I thought they could not, I’d be 
only too glad to walk back,” added Letty 
fervently ; and then fell suddenly silent under 
the amused side-glance the great lady gave 
her. 

Miss Terlowe had not meant to laugh at 
Letty, of course. She was only honestly 
amused by the ardor of the girl’s so evident 
hero-worship. But Letty caught the glance 
and it hurt her. Naturally very sensible, she 
was quick to feel the slightest degree of dis- 
approval or reproach and she fancied that 
Miss Terlowe thought her gushing and silly. 

This uncomfortable fear, coupled with the 
effect of the sad scene she had just witnessed, 
served to silence Letty’s usually ready tongue. 
She indicated with a gesture that Violet was 
to drive and clambered into the tiny rumble, 
unable to enjoy the triumph which she knew 
their entry into the village would bring. 

Violet, on the other hand, had been carried 
out of herself by the recent experience and 
related their adventure to their new companion 
with a sweet, naive earnestness that was very 
charming. 

Letty listened, and responded in mon- 


64 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

osyllables whenever Violet appealed to her. 
She was too afraid of saying too much, of ex- 
hibiting again for Miss Terlowe’s entertain- 
ment any possible over-enthusiasm, to speak 
at any length upon the subject, and therefore 
unfortunately gave the impression that she 
was a little indifferent if not unfeeling at the 
sight of suffering. 

When they stopped in front of the Inn at 
last, and Miss Terlowe alighted, it was toward 
Violet that she inclined. She shook hands 
with both girls and thanked them prettily 
for their thoughtful attention, but it was 
Violet’s hand that she held longest and Violet 
who received her parting smile and friendly 
wave as she mounted the hotel steps. 

Letty turned away quickly to hide two 
great, hot tears that suddenly and unexpectedly 
sprang to her eyes. Could it be possible that 
she was jealous of Violet? She bit her lip 
and tried to look her heart straight in the face, 
if one may be allowed such a figure of speech, 
and why not, pray ? As we are told to face 
our troubles, and most of them come from the 
heart ! — and to shame all ugly feelings out 
of it. 


THE ERRAND OF MERCY 65 

Violet fairly tumbled into the pony carriage, 
full of thrills and excitement. 

“ Oh, Letty, but hasn’t it been an eventful 
morning ! ” she exclaimed, “ and what a lot 
we shall have to tell mother I Get up, Punch 
and Judy.” 

“ I only hope she isn’t worried to death 
about us ; it’s most awfully late,” added Letty 
soberly. 


CHAPTER V 


MR. DRAKE AND THE PAPERS AGAIN 

“ My dear girlies, do you realize that it is 
nearly two o’clock ! ” were Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones’s first words as she harried down to the 
gate to meet them. “ I see by both your faces 
that you have a great deal to tell, but here is 
Eddie for the ponies ; he’s been waiting over 
half an hour, poor boy, so jump out and run 
into the house ; then we’ll hear all about it. 
Here, Eddie, is ten cents to cheer you up for 
your long wait. Ask the man at the stable 
to give Punch and Judy a good rubbing down, 
please.” 

“ Oh, Aunt Mary, whom do you think we 
picked up in the road and brought home ? ” 
cried Letty, unable to curb her excitement 
even until they reached the house. “ Miss 
Terlowe, of all people in the world ! ” 

“ And, mother, that woman was actually 
and seriously starving,” added Violet in equal 
excitement. 


66 


MR. DRAKE AND THE PAPERS 67 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones looked genuinely be- 
wildered. 

“ Miss Terlowe starving ! ” she ejaculated. 
“ 1 don’t understand. I can’t believe ” 

“ Oh, no, no, no ! ” cried both the girls at 
once, laughing heartily at her very natural 
mistake ; and each began an eager, voluble 
explanation. 

“ My dear children ! ” remonstrated Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones, putting her fingers to her 
ears to shut out the babel of tongues. “ One 
at a time, I beg of you. Letty says you 
picked up Miss Terlowe in the road and 
brought her home in the pony carriage, and 
Violet adds that she was in a starving condi- 
tion ” 

“ Oh, but mother, I didn’t mean Miss Ter- 
lowe, of course. That was just — just by the 
way. We ” 

“ Well, if Miss Terlowe is not starving, let 
us go in to lunch, for I am, or nearly so.” 

Violet shuddered and grew so pale that her 
mother put her arm around her. “ My dear 
little daughter, you are overtired ! Come to 
the table at once. A cup of hot soup ” 

But at these words Violet, who was both 


68 LE TTY'S GOOD LUCK 


overtired and overwrought, cried out so dis- 
tressedly that Letty hastened to explain the 
sad episode of the morning. 

“ Oh, my poor, dear children, I certainly 
never should have sent you if I had realized 
that the poor woman's case had reached such 
an extremity as that ! I shall return there at 
once, this very afternoon. But you both must 
sit down now and eat your own luncheon. 
Come, Violet dear, don’t be morbidly un- 
happy. On the contrary, be thankful for 
your own blessings and appreciate them.” 

“ Mother, I feel as if I could never touch 
soup again,” declared Violet, almost in tears, 
as she permitted herself to be led reluctantly 
to the table. 

Mrs. Hartwell- Jones almost smiled as she 
kissed her daughter’s sad face, but she con- 
trolled her features and answered gravely : 

“ I don’t wonder you feel upset and dis- 
tressed, daughter mine, but you ought not to 
be set against something that has done so 
much good — which has almost saved a life 
under your own supervision. That others in 
the world should be in want is a sad state of af- 
fairs, but it does not necessarily follow that 


MR. DRAKE AND THE PAPERS 69 

we, too, should go in want out of sheer sym- 
pathy. It would be only foolish to weaken 
our own powers when by keeping strong and 
well ourselves we may be enabled to help and 
minister to the unfortunate ones.” 

“ But it’s the too-muchness of everything 
that worries me,” sighed Violet, yet yielding 
even as she spoke to the demands of her 
healthy young appetite. “ As Letty said com- 
ing home, it’s so terrible to realize how many 
people overeat when others haven’t enough. 
Why aren’t things evened up more, mother? ” 

“ Older heads and hearts than yours have 
asked that question many a time, my child. I 
suppose the best answer is that this earth is 
not heaven and human nature is — well, frail 
human nature. We can only do our best, 
children.” 

“ Violet-Mary, suppose we form a 4 No- 
Over-Eating Society,’ ” suggested Letty. “ It 
will be lots of fun. Now and then a treat is 
necessary, of course, for the sake of keeping 
our tempers sweet, if for nothing else ; but we 
do spend a lot of money on stuff, don’t we ? 
Ice-cream soda, chocolates, cakes, sticky pop- 
corn — gracious, I didn’t realize how many 


7 o LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

good tilings to buy there are. Instead of buy- 
ing a plate of ice-cream or box of candy when- 
ever we think of it, let’s pop ten cents in the 
missionary box.” 

“ All right. I agree, if you’ll get Molly to 
join. I couldn’t go and sit with her da}' after 
day, and watch her eating maple-nut sundaes 
without ever touching one myself.” 

“ Even if it does seem wicked to eat 
soup when others are starving?” suggested 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones teasingly, and they all 
laughed. 

“ Oh, of course you can get it now and 
then,” agreed Letty. “ I said we must have 
a treat sometimes. We are entitled to it 
occasionally, to make up — like when Bridget 
has junket for dessert,” she added pointedly, 
making a wry face as Katy carried in a dainty, 
cut-glass bowl and set it before Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones. 

“ But it’s flavored with chocolate, Letty 
mine, and there’s your favorite cake to eat 
with it. Besides, it’s so wholesome.” 

“ Of course it is,” acquiesced Letty promptly, 
“ and so let’s send it to the Smith family ! 
Think how their little eyes will pop outof their 


MR. DRAKE AND THE PAPERS 71 

heads with joy, Aunt Mary, over such a treat. 
No, I won’t have any, thank you. I’ve joined 
the 1 N. O. E.’ society, you know. Yes, Katy, 
please, a good wide slice of cake.” 

“ A nice way of escaping rules,” scoffed 
Violet. “ You know mother makes us eat 
whatever dessert is prepared. No junket, no 
cake, Letty-smarty.” And as it was offered 
her, Violet calmly removed the whole cake 
from the tray, to Katy’s supreme astonish- 
ment. 

“ You cheeky thing I ” retorted Letty, reach- 
ing for the cake, which Violet defended gal- 
lantly, while Katy hovered nervously in the 
background. “ Cake is part of the dessert 
prepared, as much as the junket, and because 
I decline to be greedy and take everything, 
why must I be denied half? Hand it over, 
miss. Ha, ha 1 You didn’t know my arms 
were so long, did you ? ” 

“ Ow, mind that glass of water,” cautioned 
Violet. “ Look out, }mu’ll have the cake on 
the floor. Oh, I say ! ” 

When the short, good-natured scuffle was 
over and order restored, Mrs. Hartwell-Jones 
said, rather glad to change the subject for a 


72 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

few moments from the sad experience of the 
morning : 

“ What was it you started to tell me about 
Miss Terlowe, Letty ? Something about pick- 
ing her up in the road.” 

The girls related their meeting with the 
actress and its sequel. 

“ And, after all, we’re no better off than 
we were before,” concluded Letty dolefully. 
“ Unless she sends for Violet. She surely did 
take a shine to Violet-Mary.” And as if to 
atone for her moment of secret jealousy, Letty 
described, in rather exaggerated terms, the 
actress’s attentions to Violet during the short 
drive home. 

“ But I didn’t hear any invitation to call 
following her thank-yous and so-gratefuls, did 
you, Violet-Mary?” Letty ended with a sigh. 
“ If ever I’m grown up and celebrated, I 
intend to kiss every little girl I meet on the 
street, and have a whole army of schoolgirl 
protegees.” 

“ And you say that Violet was driving ! ” 
ejaculated Mrs. Hartwell-Jones in dismay. 
“ Dear me, how many shocks am I called 
upon to bear in a day ? ” 


MR. DRAKE AND THE PAPERS 73 

“ But she did it so beautifully, Aunt Mary, 
and I’m sure you’re glad that she has learned, 
aren’t you? ” 

“ It’s great fun, mother, and I do like it 
tremendously. May I go on driving them ? 
That is, taking turns with Letty, of course. 
But there comes Madame Henri,” she added, 
glancing out of the window. 

“ Just in time for a plate of nice, wholesome, 
home-made junket. Aunt Mary, do you sup- 
pose Madame Henri is really comfortable at 
the Prestons’ ? I do so wish she would come 
and stay with us, as she promised.” 

“ She did not actually promise to stay with 
us, Letty dear, only to go wherever we went. 
She feels that she can be more independent, 
I fancy, by this arrangement, and besides, she 
has her own reasons for going to board with 
the Prestons, you know. Ask her for that 
reason some time, girls, and you will hear a 
little story and learn another way of doing 
charity-work without labeling it as such.” 

Madame Henri had come, as she came every 
afternoon, to hear Letty practice. It really 
amounted to a lesson, but as Madame Henri 
refused to allow it to be called by that name, 


74 LE TTY'S GOOD LUCK 

and Mrs. Hartwell-Jones dared not offer any 
remuneration for this giving of time, the 
daily half-hour was always referred to as 
Letty’s practicing. 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones sent an order to the 
village livery stable for a carriage to drive 
her to Bear Creek, as a second journey that 
day would be too much for Punch and 
Judy, and wished to invite Mrs. Emlin to 
join her. 

“ Generally I rejoice in the temporary free- 
dom from the tyranny of a telephone,” she 
said, “ but sometimes I realize that it is a 
convenience after all.” 

“Til take a note to Mrs. Emlin,” volun- 
teered Violet eagerly. Mrs. Emlin, it must 
be remembered, was Molly Wilson’s aunt, and 
Violet had not seen her friend that day. 
“ And Ell wait for an answer.” 

Molly arrived, however, before the note was 
finished and she and Violet departed with it 
together, leaving Letty to her trills and 
scales. 

“ I know Aunt Isabel will be glad to go, 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones,” said Molly as she took 
the note. “ She misses the motor awfully 


MR. DRAKE AND THE PAPERS 75 

and we won’t get it back until next week. 
Come on, Violet, and on the way back I’ll go 
treat for a sundae.” 

Violet saw her mother’s eyes twinkle at 
this speech, and she answered positively : 

“ No, thanks ; and you mustn’t have one 
either, Molly. We mustn’t have any more 
sodas until Letty ” 

“ Oh, of course Letty shall have one too,” 
interrupted Molly. “ She’ll be through her 
practicing by then and if not, we’ll wait 
for her. Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, will you tell 
Letty to meet us at North up’s as soon as 
she can come? Tell her we’ll wait for 
her.” 

“ But I didn’t mean that,” remonstrated 
Violet. “ I hadn’t finished my sentence. 
Until Letty can explain, I was going to say. 
It’s a new scheme — a society we want to form, 
Letty and you and I. Come on ; I’ll tell you 
about it as we go. It was Letty’s idea and I 
was going to let her tell, but it’s too good to 
keep. 

“And by the way, mother, I’ll stop in at 
the Bazaar as we go by and get a toy bank 
or something to use as a fine box for the 


76 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

‘ N. 0 . E. S.' to keep the funds in.” And 
laughing at Molly's puzzled face, Violet put 
on her hat, kissed her mother good-bye and 
ran out. 

“ Here are some letters, mother,” she said, 
running in again a moment later. “ We met 
the boy from the post-office at the gate. I'm 
very glad you’ve got letters to keep you 
company.” 

“ Thank you, dear, but don’t forget that 
the note you are taking to Mrs. Emlin re- 
quires an answer.” 

“ Oh, so it does. Well, we’ll come straight 
back, so tell Letty to be sure to wait for us 
here.” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones watched the two girls 
depart, arms clasped about each other’s waists 
in true girl fashion, and then returned to 
her letters with a thankful heart that Violet 
was growing so strong and well, and was fast 
losing the painful shyness from which she had 
suffered. 

A vague familiarity of the handwriting on 
one of the envelopes caught her eye as she 
turned the letters over idly, and taking it up, 
she realized that the letter, although addressed 


MR. DRAKE AND THE PAPERS 77 

to herself, was in the same handwriting and 
bore the same postmark as the one Letty had 
received just before Meta Lowell’s visit. She 
fingered the letter nervously. 

“ It’s from that Mrs. Drake again, and to 
me,” she thought a little anxiously. “ Can 
it be that the poor woman’s husband has died 
and she wants me to break the sad news to 
Letty?” 

She opened the letter hurriedly and found 
some difficulty in deciphering the contents, 
badly written and worse spelled. 

“ Esteemed Madam,” it began, quite cor- 
rectly written and very evidently copied from 
a “ correct letter writer.” The manual of in- 
structions, however, apparently afforded very 
little further help, for the rest of the letter 
was wretchedly misspelled and constructed. 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones spent some time in 
mastering its contents. 

“ Letty certainly was more clever in her 
rendering into English than we gave her 
credit for, if Mrs. Drake’s other letter was 
like this one,” thought Mrs. Hartwell-Jones 
a little impatiently. 

The gist of the letter was that the papers 


78 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

which Mr. Drake was holding in charge for 
Letty were of more importance than Letty 
herself had considered them ; that Mr. Drake 
was still unwilling to part with them, except 
to put them into Letty’s own hands, and that 
he himself would explain the circumstances 
and reasons why they had been withheld so 
long as soon as he could see Letty. 

Violet’s and Molly’s voices were heard 
returning before Mrs. Hartwell-Jones had 
fully mastered the subject, and she felt too ex- 
cited and puzzled to be willing to discuss the 
matter, so she put the letter hurriedly out of 
sight, resolved to say nothing about it until 
some action in the business could be decided 
upon and taken. She was abashed to discover 
how excitedly her heart was beating, and how 
her brain buzzed with curiosity and specula- 
tion. 

“ What if my little Letty should turn out 
to be an heiress ! ” she reflected. “ How it 
could come about I cannot imagine, but those 
papers must contain something really im- 
portant, and Mr. Drake knows it, or he would 
not be so anxious about Letty’s claiming 
them. 


MR. DRAKE AND THE PAPERS 79 

“ We surely must get hold of them in some 
way, and soon. 

“ Only supposing Letty should come into a 
fortune I I wonder how she would spend it? 
It is easy enough to guess how a great deal of 
it would be used,” she added, her face soften- 
ing as she remembered Letty’s errand of 
mercy in the morning, and her eager desire to 
help all who were in need and sorrow. 
“ Bless her tender heart, she deserves a for- 
tune, for it would surely be well used in her 
hands.” 

Violet and Molly were chattering on the 
veranda outside, lowering their voices so as 
not to interrupt the singing lesson. Above 
their girlish laughter, above the soft sighing 
of the surf, and the sleepy twitter of birds, 
Letty’s voice rose, full and clear and a-throb 
with that elusive quality we call charm. 

“ Well, if Mr. Drake’s mysterious bit of 
paper does not turn out to bring my child a 
fortune, she will quickly win one, and hearts 
by the thousand to boot, with the pouring out 
of that wonderful treasure,” murmured Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones with tears in her eyes as she 
listened. 


8o LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


“ Aunt Isabel says she will love to go with 
you, Mrs. Hartwell-Jones,” said Molly from 
the doorway, “and I think the carriage is just 
driving up now.” 


CHAPTER VI 


A SMALL STORY AND ITS MEANING 

In the meantime Letty and Madame Henri 
were closeted in the little living-room, for the 
time being lost to everything but their music. 

After Letty’s illness in the spring, and her 
removal to the cottage at Lakewood to recu- 
perate, Madame Henri had come, too, for 
a visit. Summer plans were then discussed 
and Madame Henri had accepted an invita- 
tion to go with Mrs. Hartwell-Jones to the 
seashore, and it was her expectation, at that 
time, to become Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s guest 
for a part of the summer at any rate. But 
later Madame Henri had received news of a 
former protegee of hers, in need of assistance, 
and she modified her plans in order to give 
that assistance in a form that could not 
offend nor be refused. 

“ This young Mrs. Preston and her hus- 
band, ^ she wrote to Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, “ are 
living at Sea Side village, and if I go to board 
81 


82 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


with them, I know that the price I should 
pay them each week would be a very great 
help to them just at present. I am sure you 
will understand why I do this, chere Madame, 
instead of accepting your so generous hospi- 
tality. We shall all be very near together, 
and if you will allow me, I shall come to 
Letty every day and sit with her while she 
practices.” 

And so the arrangement had stood. Ma- 
dame’s room in the cottage of the young huck- 
ster and his wife was small, and overlooked a 
side road away from the sea and the breeze, but 
she declared herself very comfortable with her 
own books and personal belongings about her, 
and never expressed by word or look any 
regret at her choice of summer quarters. But 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones and the girls often specu- 
lated upon what reason she could have for 
submitting to such inconvenience. 

“ Ma chere, ” said Madame Henri at length, 
after she had bidden Letty repeat an exercise 
for the third time, “you do not sing so well 
as usual this afternoon. What is it, cherie? 
Has anything happened to take your mind 
off your work ? ” 


A SMALL STORT 83 

“ Oh, Madame, we had such a sad experience 
this morning, Violet-Mary and I! We took 
some food and things to a poor family down at 
Bear Greek, and found them literally starving ! 
Doesn’t it seem cruel, Madame, that some 
people should have a thousand times as much 
money as they can possibly spend, while so 
many others are iust dying for the lack of a 
few dollars!” 

“ Ah, Letty, there is so much in the world 
that we do not understand — that we cannot 
understand ; but that we must accept with 
faith. Our duty, chere enfant, is to do what 
we can to relieve suffering, wherever and how- 
ever we find it. For example, take the case 
of young Mrs. Preston ” 

“ Ah I ” exclaimed Letty eagerly. “ I knew 
there was a story there,” and she was about 
to rise from the piano stool when Madame 
checked her with a raised finger. 

“ No, no, child, our work at the singing is 
not over. You have only the ten minutes 
more, so do your best, and then I shall tell 
you the little story. I think it a very helpful 
little story.” 

So Letty, with a promise of reward, sang 


84 LETTY'S GOOD LUCK 

her sweetest and Madame listened with twin- 
kling eyes. 

“ My commonplace little story is bringing 
me a good price,” she observed. “ It will 
make a very small reward, chere Letty, but it 
is always so. It is the spirit of reward, not 
the — the poor little concrete thing itself, that 
helps one to do one’s best. I have seen it so, 
often. I have seen a child work, work, work, 
with the earnestness and industry of an artist, 
over a task, and all for the sake of a promised 
sweetmeat so tiny perhaps as to make but a 
mouthful. Well, dear child, you certainly 
have earned your reward to-day. As I was 
about to say, this Mrs. ” 

“ Oh, may Molly and Violet-Mary hear it 
too? I hear them outside,” interrupted Letty. 
“ Let us all sit out on the veranda, where it is 
cool and shady and we can watch the sea. 
Wouldn’t you like to ? ” 

“ That will be a charming arrangement, 
ma fille. Shall we go ? ” 

“ Girls,” called Letty, opening the door and 
then stepping back to allow Madame to go 
out first, “ girls, Madame is going to tell us a 
story ; come on. She is going to tell us at last 


A SMALL STORT 85 

why she chose to go away back to the Pres- 
tons’ stuffy little cottage instead of coming to 
us for the summer.” 

Madame laughed as she took the chair 
Molly had pushed forward for her. 

“ It is nothing,” she said. “ Quite nothing. 
So little, in fact, that it never occurred to me 
to tell you of it before. But Letty is so moved 
by the sad scene she saw this morning that I 
thought her sympathy was awakened and she 
would care to hear. Under ordinary circum- 
stances I would not have thought to tell, lest 
it sadden your young hearts. I have no wish 
to — how do you say ennuyer in English — any 
one.” 

“ Oh, but we won’t be bored. Please tell us, 
Madame ; let us hear it. To tell the truth, 
we’ve all been dying of curiosity to hear the 
story.” 

“ There is nothing romantic, my dears, nor 
great, nor even tragic. It is just a common- 
place story, but as sad and hard to bear — 
harder, perhaps, in a way, for there is some- 
thing in a great grief or sudden calamity 
which lifts one up to a higher plane of pa- 
tience and endurance; whereas it is the poor, 


86 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


trifling, every-day burdens that fret and harass 
the soul. 

“ Well, then, this Mrs. Preston I knew as a 
girl. She was a very fine girl, cheerful and 
patient. She sold music in the shop where I 
bought my songs, and supported her mother 
and herself ; not an exciting life, but the sal- 
ary was reasonably good. They were really 
very comfortable, those two, in their way, 
in a little, three-roomed, housekeeping flat. 
Kate — that is Mrs. Preston’s name — became 
affianced at length to a carpenter, very skilled 
at his trade and with promise of rising to the 
grade of — ah — ah — yes, of builder and con- 
tractor. But they could not marry, because 
she had her mother and it was not advisable to 
make a three-cornered household, so to speak. 

“ So Kate waited patientty and cheerfully, 
taking good care not to let her mother guess 
what were their reasons for putting off the 
marriage, lest the good old lady feel sad and 
de trop. But she died, at length, the good old 
lady, and Kate did all sorts of extra work, 
after hours, to pay off the debt of her long ill- 
ness. 

“ Then she and the carpenter were married 


A SMALL STORT 87 

and were, ah, most happy! And beginning 
to be quite prosperous as well, when, alas, he 
met with an accident ! A — ah, how do you 
say it in English ? Ah, but I remember — a 
scaffold upon which he was standing broke, 
and gave him a bad fall. His leg was injured, 
and after weeks of pain and illness, the doctor 
told him he could not work at his trade 
again and that he would be lame in the leg 
for always. Figurez-vous ! It was his trade, 
his one way of earning a livelihood, which the 
doctor’s words took from him. They were al- 
most in despair, but Kate, brave little woman, 
did not lose heart. She felt sure there was 
a way out. She inspired her husband and 
instead of losing faith and hope they hunted 
for the way out ; and they have found it.” 

“What did they do?” chorused the girls, 
much impressed. 

“ He sells flowers and vegetables, my dears. 
They rent this tiny cottage and have a garden, 
and he sells vegetables and flowers to the 
summer people. It is surprising how well it 
pays, and it is such happy, healthful work 
tending the garden ; and a work in which they 
can both take part. 


88 LETTY'S GOOD LUCK 


“ In the winters he carves in wood. He 
sells all sorts of nice little window boxes and 
tout cela. Naturally they are not, as dear 
Letty says, rolling in dollars, but they have 
enough — or almost enough. It takes so little 
to make enough with some people. But the 
point of my story, mes enfants , is that they 
have fought the fight and won. They faced 
a loss that seemed to be their very life, but 
they did not lose courage and repine; they 
kept their faith and won. That is what 
makes life great, mesdemoiselles. 

“ But ah, forgive me ! Here I am, preach- 
ing on a golden summer day, and telling a sad 
story when you already have had too much 
sight of sorrow for one time. ,, 

“ But it isn’t a sad story, Madame ; it is 
wonderful,” exclaimed Molly. “ I should 
like to meet Mr. and Mrs. Preston some time. 
I think they are splendid.” 

“ And to think that we all of us get blue 
and cross if our foolish insignificant plans for 
a good time go wrong,” exclaimed Letty 
thoughtfully. “ How petty and useless it 
makes me feel.” 

“ But you must not feel so. It grieves me, 


A SMALL STORT 89 

and I shall regret that I told my little story. 
Let us play a little game, shall we not, to get 
ourselves cheerful again ? ” 

“ Yes, but may I ask one more question ? 
Is that why you went to board with the Pres- 
tons, Madame? I mean, so that you could 
help them by paying a certain amount of 
board ?’ ’ 

“ Yes, my dear, and I hope it helps. Now, 
shall we have a little charade? I shall be 
glad to help.” 

“Let’s play * Why, When and Where,’” 
proposed Molly. “ It will be such fun puzzling 
Madame with the contrary meanings of our 
English words.” 

And so they played very merrily until Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones and Mrs. Emlin returned from 
their errand of mercy. 

But after their guests had gone, Letty 
followed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones up-stairs to her 
own room. 

“ Aunt Mary,” she said gravely, “ may I 
have a serious talk with you? ” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones turned from her desk 
with a startled air. To tell the truth, Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones had certain private worries 


9 o LETTY'S GOOD LUCK 

that summer which were beginning to tell on 
her nerves. 

“ A serious talk, Letty mine ? About 
what? ” she asked anxiously. 

“ About my future/’ replied Letty seriousty. 
“ I feel as if I’d been — well, a sort of butterfly 
these past two or three years, Aunt Mary. I 
am always flitting about from one nice thing 
to another, but I don’t seem to get anywhere. 
Every one talks about my voice until I’m 
afraid, between you and me, Aunt Mary, that 
I’m getting a bit conceited. After all, have I 
really such a very wonderful voice ? ” 

“ Oh, Letty, dear, don’t lose faith in your- 
self!” 

“ No, I haven’t lost faith in myself,” replied 
Letty a little bitterly. “ I think that is about 
the last faith one loses in this world. It is faith 
in something higher and nobler that I want to 
get, Aunt Mary, than just my own foolish self.” 

“ Who has been talking to you ? ” asked 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones quickly, with a sudden 
qualm of jealousy that some one else should 
have been the one to rouse such high senti- 
ments in her daughter’s heart. “Tell me 
about it.” 


A SMALL STORT 


9i 

And Letty did, perched on a stool at her 
mother’s feet, in her favorite attitude. She 
told of the sensations her visit to the Smith 
family in the morning had given her, and 
her first view of real privation ; and then 
Madame Henri’s commonplace but infinitely 
touching anecdote of the couple who had lost 
all that made life possible and yet who had 
had the faith and courage to begin over again, 
and succeed. 

“ I feel that I want to do things, Aunt 
Mary; not just sit around and talk about 
what I am going to do some time. Funny 
Mr. Goldberg, Madame Henri — every one, 
says I have a treasure in my voice. Well, 
Aunt Mary, I want to begin to dig for that 
treasure.” 

“ Good for you, Letty mine ! That is the 
right spirit.” 

Letty turned and looked up at her mother, 
a little shamefacedly. 

“ I’m afraid,” she confessed, “ that I’ve 
been going a little on the high and mighty 
idea that I was a sort of full-fledged genius, 
all ready to perform when the proper time 
came — a sort of bottle of champagne, so to 


92 LETT Y'S GOOD LUCK 

speak, all ready to bubble and sparkle out 
when the cork was pulled. 

“ But I’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of 
me, Aunt Mary — more than I guess just now, 
I'm afraid," she added mournfully, “ and I 
do want to begin." 

“ I understand your feelings perfectly, 
daughter dear. It is the new strength and 
energy that you are generating after your long 
illness that makes you feel so eager and ready 
for work. And don't get impatient and fancy 
that time is being lost. You have not been 
ready to start until now, and you must feel 
no self-reproach on that score for your dreams 
of what is to be. And you must remember 
that your illness was both long and severe, 
and you must surely get thoroughly well over 
it before you try your new strength too far. 

“ But Letty, dear, I am glad you have the 
right idea about your work. I am sure no 
one exaggerates who calls your voice a treas- 
ure, provided it is properly brought out. But 
no treasure is found on the surface. It is all 
buried deep, and hidden in hard, crude ore 
that requires deep, patient digging, and even 
when it is brought to the surface, the ore 


A SMALL STORT 


93 

must be tested and burned with fire before it 
is ready for the world. Consider all that 
well, Letty mine, and don’t get discouraged.” 

Letty smiled understandingly and a short 
silence fell between them. Then Mrs. Hart- 
well-Jones asked softly : 

“ Is it Madame Henri who has put these 
new thoughts into your head ? ” 

“ No, Aunt Mary, it was Miss Terlowe. 
Yes, an honest confession is good for the soul, 
you know, especially if it’s the confession of 
a fall of pride. 

“ On the night of our entertainment I was 
made to realize all of a sudden, in the midst 
of the concert, that Miss Terlowe, a perfectly 
unprejudiced but awfully good judge, had 
been entirely unimpressed by my voice. She 
merely considered me to be a little girl who 
sang very well. Those were the very words 
she used to the manager, and she cared so 
little that she didn’t even wait for his answer. 

“ You see, before this, I’ve always had the 
opinion of very dear friends — even Madame 
Henri’s heart gets ahead of her head, you 
must admit. But Miss Terlowe was a com- 
plete outsider and she — she saw only the ore.” 


94 LETT Y’S GOOD LUCK 

Letty laughed a little shakily as she rose, 
for her vanity had been pretty hard hit. 

“ My precious sweet, don’t take it so to 
heart. Miss Terlowe isn’t well ; she was prob- 
ably very tired, and I don’t believe even 
Caruso’s voice would have made her ‘ sit up 

and take notice,’ as you girls say ” Mrs. 

Hartwell-Jones was beginning, but Letty 
shook her head. 

“ Never mind, dear Aunt Mary. I don’t 
— very much. And I’m going to get ac- 
quainted with Miss Terlowe, somehow, some 
time, and make her feel interested in — well, 
in mines. I am so glad you found that poor 
Mrs. Smith better.” 


CHAPTER VII 


AN OLD FRIEND GOES AWAY 

“ Ahoy, little Miss Grey ! Come along to 
Northup’s and have a sundae with me,” called 
Mr. Jack Beckwith, overtaking Letty on her 
way home from the beach. 

Letty was roused out of a brown study and 
looked bewildered for a moment. Then she 
laughed and said gayly : 

“ I wish you belonged to our ‘ N. O. EJ 
society, Mr. Jack. Then I could charge you 
a fine of at least twenty cents for that invita- 
tion.” 

“ Who ever heard of being fined for giving 
an invitation? And what in the world is the 
4 N. O. E/ society? In what sort of mysteries 
have you been indulging during my absence in 
town ? ” 

“It certainly didn’t sound very gracious 
the way I put it,” answered Letty apologet- 
ically, “ and I think you deserve an explana- 
tion, although one of our rules is not to tell 
95 


96 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

what the society is for unless the questioner 
expresses a willingness beforehand to join. ” 

“ A sort of price for curiosity, eh ? Well, I 
admit that my curiosity is only too willing to 
pay almost any price. I'll join with eagerness. 
It must be a unique society, because one is 
invited to join most clubs only after a careful 
private investigation into one’s character has 
been made and passed upon. But let me 
repeat my invitation, even if it should cost 
me another twenty cents. We can talk so 
much more cozily over an ice-cream soda.” 

“Well, I think I will accept, thank you,” 
replied Letty consideringly. “For I am just 
awfully hungry, and perhaps if I take a sundae 
now it will keep me from overeating at lunch.” 

“ Overeating,” repeated Mr. Beckwith 
significantly. “ Don’t let my brain act for a 
few minutes, Letty, or I shall guess your 
secret. Here we are at Northup’s and my 
favorite table vacant. Aren’t we lucky ? ” 

“The ‘N. O. E. S.,’ ” Letty began, poking 
reflectively into the depths of her peach 
sundae, “ stands, as you have already guessed, 
for the ‘ No-Over-Eating Society.’ And it 
was formed by Violet, Molly Wilson and my- 


A FRIEND GOES AWAY 97 

self as charter members after Violet and I had 
visited that poor Smith family down at Bear 
Creek. I had never seen any one starving 
before, Mr. Jack,” she added with a little 
break in her voice, “ and the very thought of 
those poor, weak children spoils all this sort 
of thing for me.” She laid down her spoon 
with a sigh as she spoke. 

“ We want so much to help them,” she con- 
tinued, “ and we girls have agreed to put 
money into a little fund we are raising, instead 
of spending so much on trash. But Aunt 
Mary and Mrs. Emlin say we must be careful 
not to pauperize Mrs. Smith and that she must 
go back to work just as soon as she is strong 
enough. 

“ But it seems a long road from the brink 
of starvation back to washing clothes for a 

living, and we\ T e been thinking, we girls 

Do you mind if I talk to you about it? ” she 
asked shyly. It seemed to her all at once that 
Mr. Jack was only half listening. “ I don't 
want to bore you.” 

“ Nonsense ! I am all interest. I'm just a 
bit bothered by a little business of my own 
that will keep poking its disagreeable head 


98 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

into all my other affairs, like a toothache at a 
dinner party. Your story will help me to put 
my mind on something else for a while.” 

“ It is really Violet-Mary who has solved 
the difficulty, ” went on Letty, returning to 
her neglected sweet and too absorbed in her 
subject to take in what Mr. Jack had said 
about his own affairs. “ That is, if we can 
only succeed in carrying out her idea. 

“ As I told you — or didn’t I? — Mrs. Smith 
has been earning her living by taking in 
washing for the summer boarders, and Violet- 
Mary thought it would be so much happier 
and easier a life for her to have a garden 
instead, and raise vegetables and flowers to 
sell. The Prestons, where Madame Henri 
boards, you know, do that, and make quite a 
comfortable living out of it. 

“ As Violet-Mary says, working in a garden 
is so much more healthy and pleasant than 
bending over a tub full of hot suds and soiled 
clothes. Doctors actually order it for sick 
people, you know, whether they have to work 
for a living or not. The trouble is, that so 
many things are needed to get her started.” 

“ I should think that ground for the garden 


A FRIEND GOES AWAT 99 

would be the first and most serious considera- 
tion. ” 

“ Luckily it is not, because that dreary old 
house Mrs. Smith lives in has a great, deep 
yard behind it which needs only to be turned 
over and properly fertilized. That is what 
we are so anxious to raise money for — to hire 
some one to plough the garden this fall 
and get it into shape, ready for next spring’s 
planting. 

“ And when you called out to me just now 
I was trying to cudgel my brains for a novel 
sort of entertainment. You see, it would be 
pretty rough on the people down here to give 
another concert right on top of our other one, 
and expect them to buy tickets — not to 
mention listening to it afterward. And the 
only thing I could think of is impossible, I’m 
afraid.” 

“ What is it ? Anything that I can help 
make possible ? ” 

“ I’m afraid not, although you can do 
almost anything,” she answered gratefully. 
“ I was just wishing that Miss Terlowe would 
give a recital ! Why, we’d make a perfect 
mint of money ! ” 


ioo LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 


Mr. Jack Beckwith shook his head. 

“ I would not suggest it to her,” he said 
positively. “ I happen to know Miss Terlowe, 
and know that she is not in good health this 
summer. She is anxious to live in as quiet 
and secluded a manner as possible to add to 
her strength for her next winter’s work. Re- 
member, little Miss Grey, that that is what 
greatness means ; work, work, work.” 

Letty nodded briskly and looked across the 
narrow table at him with her newly awakened 
resolution in her eyes. 

“ I know that, Mr. Jack, and I mean to 
start my work this fall. Aunt Mary has said 
I might. I don’t know about the greatness, 
but I am sure of the work, work, work.” 

“ Good for you, little Miss Grey. That’s 
the right spirit. Have another peach 
sundae ? ” 

“ Oh, no, indeed, thank you. And twenty 
cents, please, because now you are a member 
of the 1 N. O. E. S.’ and must pay up.” 

“ That makes forty cents, doesn’t it, count- 
ing the first fine? Here’s half a dollar. I 
dare say I’ll forfeit the other dime too soon to 
make it worth while to take change.” 


A FRIEND GOES AWAY ioi 


“ Oh, thank you so much ! The girls will 
be tickled to death to have such a generous 
member in the club. We’ll watch you closely 
for the rest of the summer, I warn you.” 

She was too busy with her own thoughts to 
notice the grave look that settled over her 
companion’s face at these words. 

“ To think that you actually know Miss 
Terlowe,” she was saying with a swift change 
of subject. “ Tell me all about her, won’t 
you ? ” 

“ Would you like to know her? ” 

“ Oh, wouldn’t I just!” exclaimed Letty 
rapturously. “ I’d like it above — above al- 
most everything ! ” 

“ I wish I had known sooner. I am sure I 
could have managed it.” 

“ You mean she is going away ? ” 

“ No, Letty dear, but I am.” 

His voice was so full of regret that Letty 
looked up, startled. 

“ You are going away? But not far ! Nor 
for long, I hope? ” 

“ I have to go out to the Pacific coast, and 
shall probably be gone for several months. 
That end of our business needs personal 


io2 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 


supervision and reorganization, and it is up 
to me to go.” 

“ Oh, dearie me, it doesn’t seem possible,” 
exclaimed Letty in genuine dismay. “ I just 
can’t picture the * Rubber Band ’ or Sea Side 
at all, for that matter, without you bobbing 
up serenely every Saturday afternoon. And 
when we go back to town — why, you won’t 
be there either. Oh, dear ! ” 

Letty looked ready to cry, but remembering 
that they were in a public place, tried bravely 
to smile. 

“ Well, after all, time does go by awfully 
fast, doesn’t it, Mr. Jack ? And a few months 
isn’t forever. You’ll be back almost before 
we know it,” she said with forced cheerful- 
ness. “ And it will be very interesting for 
you to see all those Western places. Mrs. 
Goldberg was out there once, you know, and 
she does tell such funny tales about her ex- 
periences. You must keep a long journal and 
describe every new place you see.” 

“ I surely will ; if you will promise to read 
it, and long letters to boot which you must 
answer with all the home news. And now, 
may I walk home with you to tell Mrs. 


A FRIEND GOES AWAY 103 

Hart well- Jones? Perhaps she will invite me 
to lunch.” 

“ I am sure she will. I was hoping you 
would come along up and give her the 
chance.” 

“ As to Miss Terlowe,” said Mr. Jack as 
they walked the short length of village street 
to Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s cottage, “ I am sorry 
I can’t arrange a meeting between you, but 
I’ll tell you what I can do. I’ll give you a 
note of introduction to her and you can call 
on her some day and present it. How would 
you like that ? ” 

Letty considered a moment. 

“ Thank you very much,” she said finally, 
“ but I think I won’t. If I did that, don’t 
you see, she would put me down just as a 
troublesome, romantic schoolgirl nagging a 
celebrity. I think I’ll wait and get to know 
her in some other way, if you don’t mind.” 

“ When she hears you sing, she will ask to 
be introduced to you.” 

“ Ah, but she won’t,” Letty answered with 
a little catch in her voice, for she was sensitive 
and that unintentional slight still rankled. 
“ You forget that she attended the concert — 


io4 LE TTY'S GOOD LUCK 

and left before it was half over ! I heard her 
ask the manager who the little girl was with 
the pleasant voice ! ” she added ruefully, “ and 
she did not care enough even to wait for his 
answer. 

“ Then/' she continued, “ when Violet and 
I brought her home, the day her motor broke 
down on the road to Bear Creek, there was no 
electric current such as is supposed to draw 
together kindred spirits. She had no sensa- 
tion or premonition that she was talking to 
future greatness. Indeed, she hardly spoke 
to me at all, but infinitely preferred Violet- 
Mary’s conversation. 

“ No, please don’t say anything about it. 
It was good for me, Mr. Jack. I needed it. 
Really, you all spoil me too much, and a lit- 
tle wholesome snubbing is waking me up. I 
guess I’ll get a lot more of it before I’m 
through,” she ended philosophically, “ and 
I’d better learn to get used to it.” 

And Mr. Jack, knowing the cold indiffer- 
ence of the workaday world, felt the truth 
of her words too keenly to try to deny them. 

They found Mrs. Hartwell-Jones alone, as 
Violet was taking lunch with Molly Wilson, 


A FRIEND GOES A W A Y 105 

and only too glad to welcome so popular a 
guest as Mr. Jack Beckwith. He thought she 
was not looking very well, and after luncheon, 
while Letty and Madame Henri were occupied 
with their music, he sought a confidential 
talk. 

“Are you feeling quite fit, dear lady?” he 
asked her, when they had established them- 
selves in the cozy little writing room to which 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones admitted only her inti- 
mates. “ You know you used up an awful lot 
of vitality over Letty’s illness in the spring. 
I’m rather inclined to think that she has 
come out of it more victoriously than you.” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones smiled brightly and 
sat more erect in her chair, very much as if 
she were giving herself a little mental shake. 

“ Oh, I am all right,” she assured him. 
“Just a trifle worried over business. Mr. 
Shoemaker writes that some of my invest- 
ments are not behaving quite as they should — 
or as they were expected to.” 

“ Is there anything that I can look after for 
you ? ” 

“ Oh, no, thanks. I think not. Mr. Shoe- 
maker is doing everything possible. I am 


io6 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


quite sure it will all turn out right in the end, 
but I am so ignorant about business that I 
imagine all sorts of catastrophes that I 
know you or any man I told them to would 
only laugh at and say could not possibly 
happen. 

“ But speaking of business, I am interested 
in some on Le tty’s account,” and she related 
briefly the story of Letty’s letter from Mrs. 
Drake, followed by the one to herself, which 
latter she handed to Mr. Jack to read. 

He read the letter through and tried hard 
to be interested in and impressed by Mrs. 
Ilartwell-Jones’s theories and speculations as 
to the real nature of the papers about which 
Mr. Drake was so foolishly concerned, but he 
was much more inclined to take Letty’s view 
of the situation, that they consisted solely of 
old letters. Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s reference 
to her business anxieties, however, and her 
quick turning of the subject, worried him. 

“I wonder' if this man Shoemaker is all 
right and thoroughly to be depended upon ? ” 
he considered. “ Mrs. Hartwell-Jones evi- 
dently reposes absolute confidence in him and 
his methods ; and he has all of her affairs 


A FRIEND GOES AWAY 107 

completely under his control. Til try to get 
time enough to look up his record when I go 
back to town. I wish I had had an inkling 
of this earlier in the summer.” 

Aloud he said, in answer to Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones’s account of Mrs. Emlin’s prospective 
motor trip : 

“ I should go, by all means. If this man 
Drake has got the idea fixed firmly in his 
head that he won’t give up those papers ex- 
cept into Letty’s own hands, why, I’m sure he 
will keep his resolve ; for that ignorant, ob- 
stinate kind of people never listens to reason, 
you know. And it will make an awfully 
jolly trip. How I wish I could go with you 
all ! ” 

“ How I wish you could. Partings are very 
melancholy affairs, even when they are only 
for a short time.” 

Mr. Jack rose regretfully to take his leave. 

“ You’re right there, Mrs. Hartwell-Jones. 
But then, I needn’t say good-bye just yet. 
We’ve all of the rest of to-day and the whole 
of to-morrow. And as Letty says, time flies 
so fast that I’ll be back before you know I’m 
gone. Why, sister Ellen is working on her 


io8 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


Christmas presents. Doesn’t that make the 
time seem short until the holidays ? ” 

“ Must you be gone so long as that ? ” 

“ I may be able to return by Thanksgiving, 
and that is really a very short time.” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones sighed involuntarily as 
she shook hands. Mr. Jack was convinced 
that she was more worried than she had ac- 
knowledged. 

“ Such a great deal can happen in a short 
time, can’t it? ” she said gravely. 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE LOST RING 

“ What do you suppose all that crowd is 
looking at over there ?” observed Molly Wilson 
to Violet one morning about ten days later, 
as the two girls, inseparable as ever, came 
down the path to the bathing beach, arm in 
arm. 

“ I hope nothing has happened,” exclaimed 
Violet apprehensively. “ I do hope nobody 
has been hurt.” 

Molly studied the crowd and then gave a 
reassuring laugh. 

“No, they’re just reading a notice on the 
bulletin-board. Come on, let’s see what it 
is,” and Molly dropped Violet’s arm to run 
ahead, her curiosity roused. 

She wormed her way through the crowd, 
calling to Violet to follow, and was soon close 
enough to see what had caused the general 
curiosity. Tacked to the bulletin-board, be- 
109 


no LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


low the notice telling the temperature of the 
water and air, was a half sheet of note paper 
on which was written, in a clear, rather small 
handwriting, the words : 

LOST 

A valuable ring , 'presumably while in bathing. 
Aqua marine , with diamond setting. Reward if 
found and returned to Miss Terlowe , the Inn. 

The girls read the notice and then looked at 
each other with ready sympathy. 

“ What hard luck,” exclaimed Molly. “ I 
certainly do hate to lose anything, and I don’t 
believe she’ll ever get it back.” 

“ Whatever in the world possessed her to 
wear it in bathing ? ” commented Violet. “ She 
should have known better. I remember the 
ring perfectly. She had it on the day Letty 
and I drove her home with Punch and Judy. 
It was a beauty.” 

“ Well, I certainly hope she gets it back, 
but it looks perfectly hopeless to me,” said 
Molly. “ It probably fell off in the water and 
farewell ring ! ” 

By this time the crowd was beginning to 
disperse. Apparently most people shared 


THE LOST RING 


ii i 

Molly’s opinion that any recovery of the ring 
was hopeless. Violet and Molly turned to 
continue their way to the beach when Letty 
appeared in her bathing dress, wet and rosy 
from her dip in the sea. 

“ Hello, girls,” she called briskly. “ What’s 
up?” 

“ Oh, look here, Letty, read this,” replied 
Violet eagerly, and added : “ Don’t you re- 
member the ring? She had it on the day we 
rescued her, when her motor had broken 
down.” 

Letty read the “ lost ” notice and then 
turned to the others with shining eyes. 

“ Girls,” she exclaimed, clasping her hands 
in the way she had whenever she was very 
much in earnest, “ I am going to find that 
ring ! It will open a sure path to Miss Ter- 
lowe’s friendship.” 

“ But, Letty, it’s impossible,” remonstrated 
Molly. “ She no doubt lost it in the sea, and 
how can you get it back ? ” 

“ I can try, anyhow. It will be an adven- 
ture. Indeed, I think I shall begin trying 
this minute. I’ll run down and take a dive 
or two.” 


1 1 2 LE TTY'S GOOD LUCK 

And quite indifferent to the serious diffi- 
culties in her way, and the extreme improb- 
ability of picking up a small ring out of the 
shifting expanse of rolling sand and rolling 
waters, Letty turned and ran gaily back to 
the bathing beach. 

“ Of course she doesn’t expect to find it,” 
Molly observed to Violet. “ She’s just taking 
an excuse to go in for another dip.” 

But Violet looked after Letty with an 
eager, awed gaze. 

“ I don’t know about that, Molly,” she re- 
plied softly. “ Letty’s wonderful ! When- 
ever she sets out to do a thing she generally 
gets what she’s after. I shouldn’t be a bit 
surprised if she did find Miss Terlowe’s ring.” 

“ But, Violet, think of it reasonably. Even 
if the ring isn’t lost forever, which is the 
most probable thing, think of the loads of 
people who will start in hunting, for the sake 
of the reward offered. They’ll no doubt rake 
up the whole beach, and I shouldn’t be sur- 
prised if they hired a professional diver to 
come.” 

“Well, Letty dives pretty well, and I think 
her courage is splendid even to want to try 


THE LOST RING 


1 *3 

to find it, with the odds so great against her,” 
said Violet, persisting in her admiration. 
“ There comes Letty back now. Just think 
how glorious and triumphant it would be, 
Molly, if she really had found the ring. She 
would be such a heroine ! ” 

Molly regarded her friend with good- 
natured scorn. 

“ You dear little goose,” she laughed affec- 
tionately. “ You are always up in the clouds. 
You aren’t here with us at all, you know, 
Violet. At least, not very often. You have 
a cozy, sweet little world of your own, that 
you inhabit, called < Wouldn’t-it-be-nice- 
if .’” 

They both laughed and ran forward to 
meet Letty. 

Of course she had not recovered the ring, 
but that did not in the least change her de- 
termination to try again ; nor was her ardor 
damped by the multitudinous obstacles which 
Molly relentlessly heaped in her path. 

One obstacle in particular did not loom 
very high. There was no great show of a 
wide or exhaustive search being made. No 
army of men with rakes, such as Molly had 


1 14 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

depicted, came to comb the beach ; nor did 
a professional diver appear on the scene. 
People discussed the loss, the possible value 
of the ring, and expressed their sympathy for 
Miss Terlowe. Some poked about in the 
sand here and there with their canes or para- 
sols and the nurse-maids expressed the wish 
among one another that one of their charges 
might be lucky enough to turn up the lost 
jewel in the course of their building of sand 
castles. But nearly everybody appeared to 
have taken Molly’s view of the situation, that 
a recovery of the ring was beyond the limits 
of possibility. 

Letty held her peace and formulated a plan 
in the secrecy of her own thoughts. Late 
that afternoon she slipped away from the 
group of young people on the veranda and, 
taking a book, went down to the beach. She 
wanted to be on hand when Miss Terlowe 
came down to take her solitary sea-bath. 
Letty did not mean to address the actress ; 
she merely wanted to mark, if she could, the 
exact spot Miss Terlowe chose for her swim. 
She knew about the hour Miss Terlowe could 
be expected, for she had often seen her in the 


THE LOST RING 


IJ 5 

distance, and she read with one eye on her 
wrist watch. 

Miss Terlowe appeared at the expected 
hour, her bathing costume covered by a long 
coat, and followed at a short distance by her 
maid. To Letty’s surprise, however, she did 
not go down to the regulation bathing beach, 
a small, semicircular stretch of smooth sand, 
but left the narrow board walk that led down 
from the bath-houses and walked away to the 
right. At each end of the graceful crescent 
of sand a line of rocks ran out into the sea, 
so far out almost as to form a little harbor. 
The rocks were neither very big nor rough, 
being indeed for the most part nicely rounded 
boulders, very picturesque with their pur- 
plish-brown tints half covered with seaweed. 
But the girls were never allowed to swim 
there because, particularly if the tide were 
in, there w r ere apt to be strong cross-currents 
and sharp eddies. 

Letty felt a bit startled when she saw Miss 
Terlowe walk over toward the rocks. The 
first thought that occurred to her was that 
Miss Terlowe, having met with a misfortune 
on the regular beach, had consequently taken 


1 16 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 


a dislike to it and wished to try a new bathing 
place. But she soon realized, from the mat- 
ter-of-fact manner in which Miss Terlowe’s 
maid followed her mistress, that this was the 
actress’s customary procedure. 

“ Oh, I hope she’ll be safe out there,” was 
her next thought. “ But then she must know 
all about it, and she’s a good swimmer, of 
course. I remember hearing some men at the 
hotel one night praising her swimming.” 

Letty followed the actress and her maid at 
a short distance and perched herself unob- 
trusively upon one of the rocks. She opened 
her book and pretended to read, so that it 
might not seem as if she were spying upon the 
actress. She marked out of the corner of her 
eye how the actress paused before stepping 
into the water, and, bending over, examined 
closely the large, loose stones at her feet. 

“That is where she lost the ring !” whis- 
pered Letty to herself excitedly. “ Oh, I wish 
she might find it, even if it took the glory 
away from me. I know it would make her so 
happy to find the ring.” 

But Miss Terlowe’s search was evidently 
vain, and in another moment she stepped 



SHE OPENED HER BOOK 








THE LOST RING 


117 

quickly into the water, feeling her way deftly 
among the boulders, until she had gained a 
sufficient depth to swim. Then Letty forgot 
about her book and gave up all pretense of not 
watching, in her admiration of the long, 
smooth strokes of the swimmer. 

“ How wonderfully she does it ! ” she sighed. 
“ No wonder the men praised her. I am sure 
she could outswim most of them. How splen- 
did to be able to do so many things well ! I 
have an awful lot to learn, and between my- 
self and me, I think I’ve been growing into a 
conceited little ninny. Aunt Mary, Violet- 
Mary, Madame Henri, Mr. Jack, so many have 
spoiled me. But there, I’m not going to lay 
the blame on them,” she caught herself up 
with a grim little nod. “ What I mean to do 
in the future is to try to deserve a part, at any 
rate, of their good opinion of me.” 

Her thoughts went back to the lost ring, and 
it seemed to her that there was a much better 
chance of finding it among the big, loose stones 
than in the soft, much-trodden sand of the 
regular beach. 

“ How I wish I had on my bathing suit and 
could jump right in now,” she thought. The 


1 1 8 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 


afternoon was very hot, and she envied Miss 
Terlowe her cool, delicious bath. 

She watched with admiring gaze until Miss 
Terlowe turned and made her way inshore ; 
then Letty picked up her forgotten book and 
hurried away. She had found out what she 
wanted to know, but while no doubt there 
would be a better chance of finding the ring 
among the rocks, provided her surmise was 
right that the ring had been lost there, there 
was a greater difficulty than ever in the way of 
Letty becoming the lucky finder. For she was 
forbidden absolutely to bathe near the rocks. 

She hurried home and went at once to Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones’s room. That lady was sitting 
at her desk and bending over — not a sheet of 
manuscript paper but over a long column of 
figures. She hurried them out of sight as 
Letty entered, and tried to greet her daughter 
with her customary tranquil smile. 

“ Why, how hot you look, Letty mine ! And 
worried, too. Has anything gone wrong? ” 

“ Oh, no, nothing is a bit wrong, Aunt 
Mary, only it is terribly hot. I suppose you 
wouldn't want me to go in for another dip in 
the sea ? ” 


THE LOST RING 


1 19 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones glanced at the clock. 

“ I’m afraid it’s too late in the day, dear. 
Yon would not have time before dressing for 
dinner. Have you forgotten that we are all 
to dine at the Beckwiths’ ? ” 

“ Oh, I had forgotten, and there wouldn’t be 
time, I suppose. But Aunt Mary dear, may I 
go in bathing, all by myself, to-morrow morn- 
ing before breakfast? It would be glorious 
fun, and I should feel so fresh and fine for the 
day. And Aunt Mary,” Letty assumed her 
most wheedling tone and knelt on the low 
stool at Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s side, “ I want to 
ask a favor of you — a very, very, very great 
favor ! ” 

“ Go on, little artful dodger. Out with it! 
I’m afraid I shall have to say yes beforehand 
if you go on looking at me that way.” 

“ Which is exactly what I want you to say,” 
ejaculated Letty eagerly. “ I want to know 
if you will — will let me disobey one of your 
rules for just one little wee time, without 
asking me which rule it is ? ” 

Without asking you which rule it is?” 
repeated Mrs. Hartwell-Jones doubtfully. 

Letty nodded emphatically, keeping her 


120 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 


gaze fixed steadily upon her mother’s face in 
an eager, expectant stare. Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones returned her look with one equally 
steadfast, that spoke of unbounded faith, and 
then said, smiling and rumpling the short, 
curly hair : 

“ I am sure that I can trust my precious 
daughter. Only don’t be too rash or impul- 
sive, dear child.” 

“ Oh, thank you, thank you ! I won’t, I 
promise. And I’ll tell you everything just as 
soon as it’s over and I’ve tried my experiment. 
Now I’ll run along and dress to go to the 
‘ Rubber Band.’ Thank you a million times, 
you dearest dear, both for saying yes, and for 
trusting me so sweetly. I won’t forget it in a 
hurry. Shall I wear my pink muslin to 
dinner?” 

Very early next morning Letty, clad in her 
pretty, simple bathing costume, crept out of 
the house and ran down the short country 
lane that led to the beach. A milkman, 
entirely engrossed in his own business, was 
the only human being in sight. Letty felt a 
sudden great thrill of freedom and independ- 
ence. How glorious it was to be out, alone, 


THE LOST RING 


121 


in the midst of this glowing, waking world ! 
She felt like shouting — no, like singing, send- 
ing her heart out through her throat, up, 
up to the heaven as the lark did. Ah, if she 
could feel like that and sing for an audience, 
she would surely make her mark ! She would 
remember this feeling, she told herself, and 
give it out again, in the years to come, through 
her voice. 

She ran swiftly down the lane — it was not a 
time for sedate walking — and came to a pause 
on the brink of the great, flat, opalescent sea, 
that lay still and shimmering, as if it slept. 
She felt her way cautiously in among the 
boulders and the touch of the stinging cold 
sent a thrill through her. She waded out 
quickly to the deeper water and began to 
swim, taking long, slow strokes as she had 
seen Miss Terlowe do. She told herself that 
she intended to practice steadily and carefully 
until she was as expert as the great actress. 

So enthralled was she with her new sensa- 
tions, that Letty completely forgot the reason 
that had brought her down to this early bath. 
She swam and sported in the waves like a 
young mermaid until the rays of the mount- 


122 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 


ing sun reminded her that she must hurry if 
she did not intend to be late for breakfast. 
She took a last jolly tumble in the surf, 
bobbed up and treaded water while shaking 
the spray out of her eyes and was about to 
wade inshore when something caught her eye. 
A sunbeam glinted on a small object before her. 
At first Letty thought it a gleaming bit of 
mica in the stone, but curiosity took her closer, 
and to her utter amazement she saw that the 
glint was of gold. Bending, she untangled 
the shining speck from a long twist of seaweed 
and revealed — Miss Terlowe’s lost ring ! It 
had slipped off the actress’s finger while she 
was resting against the rock, and by a marvel- 
ous bit of good fortune had become entangled 
in the seaweed instead of sinking to the 
bottom. 

Letty’s joy knew no bounds. Her recent 
exaltation of spirit was all forgotten. Rush- 
ing to the shore, unmindful of the loose stones 
in her path, she ran breathlessly home, eager 
to carry the surprising and delightful news. 


CHAPTER IX 


AN INTERVIEW WITH MISS TERLOWE 

“ Miss Terlowe’s room is number ten, third 
door to the right,” said the hotel clerk. “ Go 
right up.” 

Mounting the stairs, Letty walked swiftly, 
breathlessly, down the corridor that led to 
Miss Terlowe’s room. She was excited, happy 
and a little afraid. What would Miss Terlowe 
say to her? Would she be cold and distant, 
thank Letty prettily for the returned ring and 
then gently and politely close her door? Or 
would she, as Letty fervently hoped, be so 
thankful to recover her property that she 
would regard Letty in the light of a bene- 
factor? Letty paused before the door upon 
which was inscribed the mystic number. She 
felt that it was a fateful moment. 

Miss Terlowe’s maid responded to her timid 
summons and in a very matter-of-fact way 
invited her to enter. Miss Terlowe apparently 
was expecting her. It was all turning out 
123 


124 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

very commonplace and every-day. Letty’s 
excitement died a natural death. 

“ You have found my ring,” exclaimed Miss 
Terlowe, with quite as much eagerness and 
delight in her voice as Letty could desire. 
“ They telephoned me from the office that you 
were coming up with it.” 

“ Yes,” replied Letty simply. “ I found it.” 
And she produced the small box in which 
her Aunt Mary had placed the ring. 

“ Oh, I am so glad,” cried Miss Terlowe, 
opening the box and bending to kiss Letty im- 
pulsively. “ Tell me all about it, won’t you ? ” 

The whole little episode had taken place so 
naturally and simply that Letty could hardly 
realize that it had happened. What she had 
been dreaming of, longing for — never really 
hoping to experience, had come to pass. And it 
was all “just like real life ” as she told Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones afterward. Miss Terlowe, in 
the flesh, was just like anybody else — a very 
charming anybody else, that is. 

“Sit down,” Miss Terlowe continued hospi- 
tably, “ and tell me how you ever found it? 
I had quite given it up for lost.” 

“ Well, at the end, it really was rather by 


AN INTERVIEW 


125 

accident,” admitted Letty. “ When I saw the 
notice on the bulletin-board, I told the girls I 
intended to find the ring. I don’t believe I 
was really in earnest, for it did seem pretty 
hopeless, you know, and the girls discouraged 
me awfully. Especially Molly Wilson, and 
I’m dying to see her face when she hears I’ve 
succeeded.” 

“ I should like to see it too,” said Miss Ter- 
lowe, and they both laughed. 

“ Do tell me about the lucky accident,” 
urged Miss Terlowe, as eagerly as a girl. 

“ Well, when I read that notice I did have 
a queer feeling inside me that I might find it 
as I have sometimes when Madame Henri 
gives me a new exercise that she thinks I 
won’t get true, and ” 

“Oh, you are the little girl who sings,” 
interjected the actress. “ Ah ! Well, we’ll 
talk about that afterward. Then what hap- 
pened ? ” 

“ Well, I — I followed you down to the beach 
yesterday afternoon to see just where you took 
your bath ” 

“I saw you,” commented Miss Terlowe 
blithely, “ but I thought you were absorbed 


126 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


in your book. My vanity was a wee bit 
pricked,” she added and they both laughed 
again, understanding^, like old comrades. 

“ But I was watching hard, all the time,” 
declared Letty with shining eyes. “ Only I 
was so afraid you would think me an intruder 
that I pretended I wasn’t. That is, until I 
forgot everything but watching you swim. 
You do do it so beautifully !” 

“ Bless the child’s heart, she knows how to 
give a true compliment ! And then ? ” 

“ Well, of course my plan was to go in after 
you and dive all about the spot, but I wasn’t 
sure what to do about it, for Aunt Mary doesn’t 
allow us to go in bathing up by the rocks. 
By the time I had got home and asked her 
permission it was too late, but I went this 
morning, and oh, it was so beautiful ! I mean 
the whole morning — the sunrise — or just after 
sunrise when everything was still soft and 
pearly and milky white; and nobody was 
around — just me.” Letty clasped her hands 
and lost herself for a moment in a revery of 
the morning’s sensations. 

“ I know,” said Miss Terlowe softly. “ It 
makes you want to do big things, that feeling. 


AN INTERVIEW 


12 7 

If only we could have it oftener ! ” And she 
sighed, a little wistfully. 

“ But you needn’t wish for that feeling, 
when you are so great all the time,” exclaimed 
Letty impulsively, and then blushed and hung 
her head. 

She felt that she had been crude and gush- 
ing again and a recollection of Miss Terlowe’s 
amused, tolerant glance the day the girls had 
brought her home in the pony carriage pierced 
Letty’s heart like a stab. She would not look 
up to encounter another such look. 

But Miss Terlowe felt the earnestness of her 
words and patted the girl’s clasped hands 
gently. 

“ Thank you, my dear. I won’t forget those 
words in a hurry. I know you mean them.” 

Then Letty raised her head and revealed 
her brown eyes full of tears. 

“ I went in swimming where I had seen you 
the afternoon before,” she continued abruptly, 
resolved not to spoil that heavenly moment 
by any sentimentality. “ And when I got in 
the water, it was all so thrilling — so cold and 
big and fresh — that I forgot everything else. 
And then, just as I was coming out, I saw a 


128 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


tiny gleam of light on one of the rocks. I 
swam over to see what it was, and there was 
your ring, all tangled in the seaweed. Wasn’t 
it wonderful ? ” 

“ It was indeed, you sweet child, and I can’t 
begin to express my gratitude. To be per- 
fectly frank, I am superstitious enough to feel 
a presentiment about this ring. I have always 
called it my talisman, and am never without 
it, except at night. Generally, I take it off 
just before going into the water, and give it to 
Justine to hold; but that afternoon I was 
absent-minded, or careless, and forgot. I am 
a bit thinner than usual this summer, and the 
ring slips on my finger, you see.” She put on 
the ring and held up the hand to show. The 
ring slipped off and fell into her lap. 

“ Oh, it isn’t safe a moment without a 
guard,” exclaimed Letty impulsively, her eyes 
watching eagerly the actress’s long, slender 
fingers. 

Miss Terlowe had beautiful hands, large, 
but exquisitely shaped, with long, tapering 
fingers, and a grace of motion that made her 
gestures almost the most expressive part of 
her acting. 


AN INTERVIEW 


129 

Miss Terlowe’s eyes in turn were fixed on 
Letty’s thin, restless brown hands, clasped so 
tensely in her lap. On the ring finger of the 
right hand was an odd, twisted little circlet of 
gold, set at intervals with tiny moonstones. 
A ring of no intrinsic value but quaint and 
unusual. 

44 I do need a guard,” the actress agreed 
whimsically, “ but all my rings are too large 
for me, except one that is too small. Isn’t 
that hard luck ? That is a pretty ring you are 
wearing ; may I see it ? ” 

Letty slipped it off without hesitation and 
handed it to her. 

44 It looks as if it might bring 4 luck/ too. 
Has it any associations? ” 

44 Oh, no. I’m only fond of it because 
Clara Markham gave it to me. She brought 
it to me the last time she came over from 
England. Aunt Mary doesn’t care particu- 
larly to have me wear rings.” 

44 I’ve an idea,” Miss Terlowe exclaimed, 
jumping to her feet, 44 that is, if you con- 
sent. Excuse me a moment.” She hurried 
into the next room where Letty could hear 
her talking to the maid. When she re- 


130 LE TTY'S GOOD LUCK 

turned she was carrying a small, red morocco 
case. 

“ How would you like to exchange — well, 
not rings, but something to wear ? ” she asked. 
“ I am sure that ring you wear would just fit 
me, and it would make a charming guard for 
my ring. Then in exchange I will offer you 
this.” 

As she spoke, Miss Terlowe opened the case 
and revealed, on a cushion of white velvet, a 
pendent consisting of an oval aqua marine of 
unusual brilliancy and cutting, suspended 
from a fine chain of platinum. 

“ Oh,” cried Letty, “ how perfectly exquis- 
ite ! 

“ It is pretty, isn’t it ? Try it on.” 

“ On me?” 

“ Certainly. It is for you.” 

“ You surely don’t mean that you want to 
exchange that lovely thing for my poor little 
ring ! ” 

“ Of course I mean it,” laughed Miss Ter- 
lowe. “ Your ring will be most useful to me, 
whereas this pretty bauble I never wear. Be- 
sides, if it comes to the question of value, I 
owe you a reward, you know.” 


AN INTERVIEW 


x 3* 

Miss Terlowe fastened the chain around 
Letty’s neck without further parley. Miss 
Terlowe generally did what pleased her. 

“ Now,” she said, lightly kissing the girl’s 
hot, excited cheek, “ tell me all about the 
singing. Do you mean to 4 make good,’ as 
the modern slang expresses it ? ” 

“ Yes, I do,” answered Letty, and something 
in the quiet directness of her answer made the 
great actress look at her with more interest. 

With very little encouragement, Letty 
poured forth her story of the concert and the 
suffering she had experienced from her failure 
to impress Miss Terlowe with her singing. 

“ But I see now it did me good,” she con- 
cluded. “ It — it woke me up, I think, and 
where I’ve been playing and imagining great- 
ness, now I’m going to earn it, if hard work 
and perseverance can succeed.” 

“ They will, my child, they will. But 
don’t lose sight of the fact that perseverance 
doesn’t mean making a good resolution. It 
means a fight. Oh, such a fight ! Not only 
against odds old and new, anticipated and un- 
expected, great and small ; but a fight against 
yourself — against the temptation of laziness, 


132 LETTT'S good luck 

good times and even ill-health. Nothing 
must stop you, dear little girl, if once you 
start to climb the ladder, nothing. 

“ And it’s a hard, long climb, remember 
that. No matter how much praise you have 
had, and how well you deserve it, to succeed 
you will have to start at the bottom. I did, 
and oh, so many times I wanted to turn 
back ! ” 

“ But you didn't ! And you have reached 
the top ! " 

“ It is not a very high top, dear, and yet a 
tipply eminence to me. So often I have 
turned and looked back at the peaceful, pleas- 
ant valley of comfort and commonplace. 

“ This summer has been specially hard," 
she went on, as if, once started, she found 
talking about herself a relief. “ I have often 
envied you girls when I've passed you at 
your play." 

“ Envied us girls ! " ejaculated Letty. “ How 
— how funny ! When we were all eating our 
hearts out with longing to meet and know 
you ! " 

Miss Terlowe sighed. 

“ Have I seemed terribly selfish and un- 


AN INTERVIEW 


133 

sociable ? It is only because it was the doc- 
tor’s orders. We workers have to reserve our 
strength for our work, you know, and some- 
times we haven’t enough left for play. I have 
not had, this summer, and it has been hard 
to forego the companionship of my fellow 
creatures. I have almost yielded to the temp- 
tation sometimes of ” She paused and 

eyed Letty thoughtfully. “ Perhaps now 
that I know you I shall have the cour- 


“To what?” asked Letty breathlessly. 

“ Why, to stop and invite you to get in 
with me, when I am motoring off alone and 
lonely over these roads I have learned to 
know so well.” 

“ And you have thought of doing that — 
actually wanted to? We all thought you 
didn’t even see us when you passed by.” 

“ Do you remember the day you and — 
your sister was she? — picked me up in the 
road in your cunning little pony carriage and 
brought me home? That was a great adven- 
ture to me, and I talked to Justine about it 
all the afternoon. But I was too tired to con- 
tinue the acquaintanceship. What a charm- 


i 3 4 LETTY'S GOOD LUCK 

ing girl your sister is. I hope I shall know 
her better some time.” 

Letty jumped to her feet with a sudden 
realization of the length her visit must have 
assumed. 

“ I am afraid I have tired you to death 
now. Please forgive me.” 

“ But you haven’t at all. Please stay longer 
if you have time. I haven’t heard a word 
about your music. How very — very human 
it was of me to get going on my own troubles. 
Who teaches you ? ” 

“Madame Henri. I had scarlet fever in 
the spring and had to give up all work for a 
while. Madame Henri won’t call my work 
this summer lessons, but she comes every day 
and sits with me while I practice.” 

“A devoted teacher. And who is Aunt 
Mary? Do you know, I don’t even know 
your name. I could not understand what 
they said over the telephone.” 

“ Letty Grey.” 

“ Letty Grey. I wrnnder Do you know 

Mr. Jack Beckwith ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, very well indeed ! ” 

“ Ah, then you are Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s 


AN INTERVIEW 


*35 

adopted daughter. He has spoken very often 
of 1 little Miss Grey.’ ” 

“ That is what he calls me/’ 

“ You have a very faithful friend in him — 
and ardent admirer,” she was tempted to add, 
but did not. 

“ Will you come again soon ? ” 

“ I should like nothing better in this whole, 
wide world.” 

“ And will you sing me some of your 
songs ?” 

“ Very gladly ! ” 

“ Then I’ll let you go now, but you are 
to come again — say to-morrow at the same 
hour ? ” 

Letty put out her hand. 

“ I wish I could ever make you under- 
stand what this morning has been to me,” 
she said simply. 

“ I am sure it has meant no more to you 
than to me,” and Miss Terlowe smilingly held 
up the finger that wore the recovered ring. 

“ Are you sure I am right to accept such a 
very splendid reward ? ” asked Letty anx- 
iously. 

“ Quite sure. And if your Aunt Mary 


1 36 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

should say anything, just send her to me. 
Til make it all right.” She was still holding 
Letty’s hand and she gave it a light pat as 
she added hesitatingly : 

“ May I venture to offer a wee bit of 
advice? ” 

“ Please do ! About my singing? ” 

“ Yes. When you begin work this fall, go 
to one of the big conservatories. Don’t hurt 
your dear Madame Henri’s feelings, but man- 
age in some way to — to join the workaday 
world with your work.” 

Letty’s eyes twinkled. 

“ Get away from the flattery and spoiling,” 
she said roguishly. “ I know. That is one 
of the things I got to understand this morn- 
ing out in the bigness of things.” 

“ Good. And don’t forget that impression, 
my dear. It was not a mere fleeting sensa- 
tion, but a real inspiration. Treasure all such 
and learn to appreciate them.” 

“ Thank you. And good-bye, dear Miss 
Terlowe. Oh, I am so happy ! ” 

Letty walked home with feet that never 
knew where they stepped ; habit was kind and 
led her right. Mrs. Hartwell-Jones with 


AN INTERVIEW 137 

Violet, Molly and Mary Beckwith were wait- 
ing for her with eager curiosity and impa- 
tience. 

“ Where have you been all this time? Did 
she keep you waiting? What is she like? 
What did she say?” were a few of the myriad 
questions hurled at her as she entered. 

“ She was wonderful and she was — w r as hu- 
man,” answered Letty solemnly. 

Every one burst into peals of laughter. 

“ Bless my precious little Letty mine,” cried 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones. “ My little hero-wor- 
shiper ! See how much happier you are now 
that you have lifted your idol down from her 
pedestal and breathed life into her. Before, 
you worshiped Miss Terlowe. Now, you can 
love her. But Letty, child, whatever is that 
you have around your neck?” 

“ My reward, Aunt Mary, and Miss Terlowe 
said if } 7 ou did not understand, she knew how 
to make you.” And sitting down, Letty told 
them all about it. 


CHAPTER X 


violet’s adventure 

The proverbial ill-wind that caused the loss 
of Miss Terlowe’s ring blew in its train the 
inevitable good, and the new friendship blos- 
somed apace. Miss Terlowe sent a note to 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones that afternoon, inviting 
her and both Letty and Violet to lunch with 
her on the following day, an invitation which 
it is needless to say was accepted. It was a 
most delightful little luncheon, served in 
Miss Terlowe’s private sitting-room. Madame 
Henri was invited, too. “ I feel as if Letty 
had already introduced us,” Miss Terlowe had 
written her, and after the simple, dainty meal 
was over, Madame played and Letty sang. 
Miss Terlowe praised Letty sincerely and was 
evidently impressed, but it was impossible not 
to see that the great actress’s preference con- 
tinued in favor of Violet. Violet accepted the 
new friendship modestly, almost deprecatingly. 
She could not understand how anybody — ex- 
138 


VIOLET'S ADVENTURE 139 

cept, perhaps, Molly Wilson — could prefer her- 
self to Letty ; clever, beautiful, brilliant 
Letty ! But Miss Terlowe’s kindness made 
her very happy, and she blossomed in the soft 
sunshine of love and admiration like a shy, 
sweet violet as she was. 

“ I think your younger daughter inexpres- 
sibly charming ! ” Miss Terlowe ejaculated to 
Mrs. Hartwell- Jones one day, when the two 
were sitting somewhat apart from the young 
people. 

“ You could not give me greater happiness 
than by saying that,” replied Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones earnestly. “ The dear child is so diffi- 
dent and retiring that most people fail to pene- 
trate the outer crust and appreciate her true 
worth. But I think she is becoming more 
like other girls.” 

“ Oh, but do you want her to be like other 
girls? It is that elusive quality about her 
that makes the child so adorable. Don't let 
her get into the general rut.” 

“ Oh, no, not that. I think she will always 
keep her unusualness. Her past has molded 
her.” 

“ Her past,” repeated Miss Terlowe, pricking 


1 40 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

up her ears, as Letty would have said. “ You 
don’t mean to tell me that child has anything 
so dramatic as a past ! Would you mind tell- 
ing me about it? Was it a prolonged illness, 

or Don’t say anything if you’d rather 

not,” she added quickly, marking the expres- 
sion on her companion’s face. 

“ I should be very glad to tell you. It is a 
sad story, but it has a happy ending which 
makes us all most thankful.” And Mrs. Hart- 
well-Jones recounted the whole history of her 
baby’s disappearance in the terrible shipwreck, 
and the ultimate identification of her as the 
little lame lace-maker of Lyme Regis in 
England. 

“ How romantic ! And how interesting ! 
That accounts for the child’s character. She 
has suffered, and she understands. Most girls 
of her age are either purely skeptical of misery 
or else thoroughly confident of their own abil- 
ity to check it. But Violet understands. She 
will make a wonderful woman, my dear, when 
she is grown. Ah, Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, you 
are singular^ blessed ! ” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones sighed involuntarily, 
and tears sprang to her eyes. 


VIOLET'S ADVENTURE 141 

“ I hope I appreciate and am truly thank- 
ful for my blessings, but they bring a great 
responsibility, too. I trust I may bring up 
my two daughters as I wish, and can con- 
tinue to give them everything they want — or 
need.” 

“ As far as I have been able to see, they 
both have everything in the world they could 
possibly want,” replied Miss Terlowe, a little 
dryly, for she fancied Mrs. Hartwell-Jones 
was entertaining worldly ambitions for her 
daughters. 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones did not explain, and 
they sat for a short time in silence, watching 
the young people. 

“ And that is why Letty calls her Violet- 
Mary,” observed Miss Terlowe presently, fol- 
lowing the train of her own thoughts. “ I 
suppose the baby was named for you ? ” 

“ Yes, and the people who found her could 
not discover her name — the nurse never re- 
covered sufficiently to tell them — so poor dear 
Mrs. Moore gave her what she considered the 
very prettiest name she had ever heard.” 

“She is like a violet. And the combina- 
tion Violet-Mary is quite delightfully quaint 


i 4 2 LETTT'S good luck 

enough. It suits her exactly. May I adopt 
it?” 

The lunch party in Miss Terlowe’s rooms 
had been followed quickly by a succession 
of delightful parties and short excursions. 
Either Miss Terlowe felt that her recovered 
health need no longer be closely considered, 
or she found continued seclusion intolerable. 
At any rate she sought Mrs. Hartwell-Jones 
and the girls frequently, and appeared to find 
both comfort and enjoyment in their com- 
panionship. 

In the meantime, the motor trip to 
Narragansett Pier had not been lost sight of. 
On one or two occasions plans had advanced 
to the stage of setting a date, but something 
had come up unexpectedly to deter them. 
But at last Mr. Emlin “ saw daylight,” as he 
expressed it. In other words, he saw a speedy 
end to the train of several business affairs that 
would ensure him a two weeks’ uninterrupted 
holiday, and it was decided to take the trip at 
some period during that fortnight. 

“ Not that it is such a very long or hard 
trip,” laughed Molly ; “ you know it’s only 
a two day run from here to Narragansett, 


VIOLET'S ADVENTURE 143 

but we want to have all sorts of fun by the 
way.” 

“ I wish Mary Beckwith could go, too,” 
sighed Letty. “ You know she could have 
gone if it had been this next week, but all 
those college boys are coming home with Max, 
and she has to be here to help entertain them.” 

“ That’s not a very serious obligation,” 
answered Molly. “ I hope we will get back 
in time to help a little with the entertaining 
ourselves. College boys are great fun, and 
there are sure to be some fine tennis players 
among them.” 

“ Perhaps you’d rather give up the motor 
trip ? ” suggested Letty. “ You know you 
proposed it first on my account, and those 
papers Mr. Drake has, but I am sure we can 
easily get the papers some other way, or they 
can wait.” 

“ Dearie me, I wouldn’t give up the trip for 
anything. Besides, aunt and uncle are very 
keen on it. I was just thinking that it is 
turning out so differently from what we first 
planned. When it was first talked about, 
Aunt Isabel was hoping Mr. Jack would go, 
too, in his car, and have a big party. 


i 4 4 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

Wouldn’t it have been fun? But of course, 
Aunt Isabel did not know anything about 
his going out West.” 

“ Neither did any of us, until he sprang it 
on us just before starting,” responded Letty. 
“ By the way, I had such a jolly letter from 
him this morning. Would you girls care to 
hear it ? Let’s find a quiet, shady spot and 
I’ll read it aloud.” 

The three girls were out driving with 
Punch and Judy in the pony carriage. As 
Letty made her suggestion they were driving 
past the entrance of a deserted farm, that 
communicated with the highroad by means 
of a long, meandering lane that passed be- 
tween rows of sumac, so overgrown as to form 
a miniature thicket in the distance. The girls 
looked up the lane toward the promised shade 
with longing eyes. They generally kept very 
strictly to the highroads on their pony drives 
because any roads diverging from the main 
turnpike were apt to be of loose sand and 
dust, very difficult for the old, fat ponies to 
pull through. But the lane they were pass- 
ing did not look in particularly bad condition. 
It was largely overgrown with grass, and af- 


VIOLET'S ADVENTURE 145 

forded good footing for Punch and Judy ; only 
at intervals did patches of sand show through 
the brown earth. 

“ Let’s drive up "there,” suggested Molly. 
“ It will be both quiet and shady in the 
clump of sumac bushes, and we could turn 
the ponies loose for a browse.” 

The others agreed and Violet, who was 
driving, turned the ponies’ heads into the 
lane. None of the girls had observed a 
young man in a runabout who had been 
driving behind them down the road. No one 
could have accused the man of following the 
girls, although he had kept his horse at a 
walk behind their carriage, and had watched 
them with a keen, speculative gaze for the 
past two miles. But when they turned in at 
the deserted lane an unpleasant smile lighted 
his face and he pulled his horse to a halt. 
Glancing furtively about to see if he were ob- 
served, the man alighted and made a pretense 
of examining his horse's hoof while several 
motors whirled by, up and down the road. 
Then, taking advantage of a moment when 
no vehicle was in sight, he sprang into the 
carriage again and drove into the lane after 


146 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

the girls, who were already almost out of 
sight ahead. He drove slowly, cautiously, 
with frequent halts and reconnoiterings. 

“ Dearie me,” exclaimed Letty, who was 
sitting in the rumble and getting a good deal 
jostled as the carriage careened in and out of 
the hidden, grass-grown ruts of the road. “ I 
don’t call this much of a way.” 

“ I didn’t realize that the sumac bushes 
were so far off,” agreed Molly. “ Do you 
think we’d better turn back?” 

“ There isn’t any place to turn yet,” an- 
swered Violet, glancing from side to side. 
“ See how high the banks are. We’ll have to 
go on.” 

The thicket was reached by this time, but 
although it was a most picturesque spot, the 
sun was still too high in the heavens to per- 
mit the low bushes to afford any shade, while 
their thick foliage shut out all the breeze. 

“ Ugh, it’s awful ! ” exclaimed Letty. “ And 
mosquitoey, too. We’ll have to go back, 
Violet-Mary.” 

Violet transferred the reins to one hand 
while she slapped her cheek violently with 
the other. 


VIOLET'S ADVENTURE 147 

“ I should say there are mosquitoes, and 
flies, too. Whoa, Punch and Judy ! ” 

The girls stopped and held a consultation. 
The man behind stopped too, and guessed 
what would follow. Getting out of his own 
light carriage again, he led the horse care- 
fully out of the road, up the slight bank and 
around back of the thicket of sumac. He 
tied the horse and, dropping to his knees, 
found himself very close above where the 
girls were sitting. By bending aside a few of 
the stems, he could both see and hear, with- 
out being himself seen. Behind him, his 
horse switched his tail and stamped to keep 
off the annoying flies, but the thick grass 
deadened the sound of his hoofs and the girls 
were not listening for sounds in this deserted 
spot. 

“ How can we go back, Letty?” asked 
Violet, looking at the banks on each side 
which just there were considerably higher 
and with the bushes growing all the way up. 
“ We can’t back all that way, can we? At 
least, I know I couldn’t keep in the road. 
Hadn’t you better drive?” 

Letty stood .up in the rumble and looked 


148 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

behind her. The man had got out of sight 
just in time. Then she looked ahead up the 
road, over the ponies’ heads. 

“ I think we can go on a little way and 
turn,” she said. “ It looks as if the road 
broadened out into a field or something just 
ahead there. These banks go down again 
just beyond that curve in the road, I think.” 

‘‘Onward, march, then,” said Molly. “I, 
for one, am being eaten alive.” 

“ Get up, then, Punch and Judy. Trot 
along, old fellows, and keep the flies off,” 
called Violet cheerfully to the ponies, who 
started off willingly enough. 

The man, walking on the other side of the 
bushes at the top of the bank, followed. 

As Letty had supposed, the banks of the 
small hillock did go down again, and the 
road, which was by now a mere cart-track in 
the coarse grass and sand, led on across a 
wide, open field. The thicket of sumac 
bushes stopped too, and so, perforce, did the 
man, as he had no desire to be seen in the 
open. 

“ Here we are, all right-o,” exclaimed Letty 
triumphantly. “ Now, then, Violet-Mary, 


VIOLET'S ADVENTURE 149 

just drive out of the road and around in a 
little circle and we’ll be headed right in 
a jiffy. Look out ; can you get out of that 
rut ? ” 

“ Look out,” called Molly from her side at 
the same moment. “ We’re pretty deep in 
the sand on this side. Don’t turn so sharp, 
Violet. Go ahead a little way.” 

Letty, who had leaned out of the rumble 
to look, called out a second quick warning at 
the same instant. Violet grew excited and 
confused and instead of pulling the ponies 
back into the road, she tugged hard at the left 
rein ; the valiant ponies responded with cheer- 
ful alacrity, the carriage gave a tip and a lurch 
that nearly sent Letty out over the wheels ; 
then there was a sudden ominous crack like 
the splitting of wood and the carriage settled 
tipsily on one side. 

“ Now we have done it I ” ejaculated Letty 
in dismay, springing to the ground. “ We’ve 
broken a wheel.” 

“ Not really ! ” exclaimed Molly and Violet 
in dismay and they, too, dismounted. 

Punch and Judy were not in the least dis- 
turbed. They began calmly to munch the 


150 L EXIT'S GOOD LUCK 

short, coarse grass at their feet in cheerful 
unconcern. In the background, behind the 
thicket, the strange man rubbed his hands in 
secret rejoicing. The affair had taken an un- 
foreseen turn which promised to work to his 
advantage. 

The girls stared from the broken wheel to 
one another in blank dismay. They were 
several miles from home and over a mile from 
the nearest village. 

“ Whatever in the world shall we do ! ” ex- 
claimed Violet helplessly. “ Oh, why did we 
ever leave the highroad ? Mother has told us 
not to so often.” 

“ Well, we haven’t left it very far,” answered 
Letty dryly, “ and the walking’s still good.” 

“ But we can’t go away and leave Punch 
and Judy ! ” 

“ We could leave them long enough to get 
help. Or why not unharness them and drive 
them home? Then send somebody back for 
the carriage.” 

“ We never could walk that far, Letty, and 
besides, wouldn’t you be afraid of walking so 
close to the ponies’ heels ? ” 

“ Afraid of my precious old Punch and 


VIOLET'S ADVENTURE 151 

Judy's heels ! ” ejaculated Letty indignantly. 
“ Bless their dear old hearts, they wouldn't 
any more kick out than a baa-lamb would. 
But I've got the very scheme I We'll ride 
them ! Two of us can mount the ponies and 
the third walk alongside for a certain distance 
and then take turns on horseback. Come on, 
that's simple." 

But Violet shrank back in alarm at the 
very suggestion. 

“ I could never hold on, Letty. I was never 
on a horse’s back in my life ! " 

“ You don’t know what you can do till 
you’ve tried. You thought you couldn’t drive 
them until you found the reins in your hands. 
Come on, let's try. It will be a good deal like 
sitting in a rocking-chair," said Letty en- 
couragingly, and began to unharness the 
ponies. 

Molly had been on her knees, examining 
the broken wheel. 

“ The hub is only cracked," she announced, 
rising, “ and I believe if we had a jack and 
some rope, and a man to help, we could tie it up 
enough to get home with. It would be pretty 
expensive, Letty, to leave the carriage here 


152 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

and send after it. Isn’t there a farm around 
here, where we could ask for help ? ” 

“Oh, that would be a much better plan,” 
agreed Violet, who dreaded the idea of riding 
horseback. A braver heart might have ob- 
jected to a beginning without a saddle. 

“ I think there’s a farm along here some- 
where,” said Letty considering. “ Of course 
this place is deserted, but somebody has a 
truck farm along here, I don’t remember just 
where. Do you remember whether we passed 
a white barn, girls ? ” 

“ No, I don’t remember, but I don’t think 
we did,” answered Violet. “ I think it’s 
farther along.” 

“ Well, let each of us go in a different direc- 
tion,” proposed Molly, “ and the one who sees 
land — I mean a barn — first, shall signal to the 
others.” 

“ But I think one of us ought to stay with 
the ponies,” objected Letty, who could not 
bear to desert her pets, even for a moment. 

“Then I’ll stay with them,” declared Violet. 
“ I was driving when the accident happened, 
so I’ll be the captain that doesn’t desert his ship. 
But please don’t be long, girls, because it’s 


VIOLET'S ADVENTURE 153 

pretty lonely just here/’ and she looked about 
her with a sudden apprehension. 

“ Well, it’s out in the open and there aren’t 
any mosquitoes, at any rate,” Molly consoled 
her, “ and here’s my sun umbrella. Come on, 
Letty ; which direction do you choose? ” 

“ I’ll go up this way, if you don’t mind, be- 
cause I have a sort of feeling that we did pass 
the barn. You go the other way, Molly. 
Have you your watch on ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Well, take the time and let’s agree not to 
be gone longer than ten minutes. If we don’t 
find a farmer, we have my suggestion to fall 
back on, so don’t look so down-hearted, Violet- 
Mary ; we’ll get home somehow. Bye, bye. 
See you in ten minutes,” and Letty ran cheer- 
fully off in one direction, while Molly followed 
her example in the other. 

Violet looked after them longingly and told 
herself over and over that ten minutes was a 
very short time. The man behind the bushes 
told himself the same thing and that he must 
act quickly. From the edge of the thicket he 
could hear what the girls said, and began to 
lay his plans. 


i 5 4 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

The backs of Letty and Molly were not out 
of sight more than half a second, over their 
respective fences, before he advanced and ap- 
proached the side of the pony carriage. 


CHAPTER XI 


TO THE RESCUE 

Violet had stood up in the carriage to get 
a last fleeting glimpse of Letty’s vanishing 
figure. She felt suddenly deserted and terri- 
bly alone. The sound of a man’s voice, close 
at her side, was so unexpected and terrifying 
that she dropped down on the seat with a 
stifled scream. 

“ My dear young lady, don’t look so alarmed. 
I did not mean to frighten you,” exclaimed 
the man. “ I want to help you.” 

He was not a nice looking young man. His 
clothes were too “ smart,” his manner too po- 
lite and deferential to ring true; but Violet 
was not discriminating enough to realize that. 
Her startled imagination had pictured a brute 
and she was too relieved to see a thin, young, 
common-looking man to be particular about 
his personality. 

“ Oh, I wish you had come up a minute 
155 


156 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

sooner,” she exclaimed ingenuously. “ My 
sister and friend have just gone for help. We 
broke a wheel of our carriage.” 

“ Too bad,” replied the man, bending to ex- 
amine the wheel in affected interest. “ I have 
my horse and carriage back there and could 
have taken you all home.” 

“ Where ? ” asked Violet in surprise. 

“ Back of those bushes. The place looked 
so inviting and shady. I did get some shade, 
but the mosquitoes were bad. I don’t know 
which woke me, their stinging or your voices.” 

“ We came in to get shade too, but we stayed 
down in the road and it was both hot and 
dusty. Then we drove on up here to turn 
around and the wheel got caught in a rut,” 
explained Violet. “ I wish the girls would 
come back. Perhaps you could help us ? I 
don’t suppose you happen to have a rope ? ” 

“ No, I’m afraid not,” replied the man, 
bending again to examine the wheel and re- 
straining himself from pushing his advantage 
too quickly, “ but I tell you what we could 
do,” he added, looking up as if the idea had 
just occurred to him, “ I could drive you to a 
wheelwright’s shop in the next village and 


TO THE RESCUE 


1 57 

fetch back a man with all his tools. He could 
fix this wheel up in a trice, I feel sure.” 

Violet listened hopefully. 

“ It’s awfully good of you to offer to help,” 
she said eagerly. “ Are you sure it won’t take 
too much of your time?” 

“ No, indeed, it will be a lark. Come on.” 

“ Oh, I don’t think I’d better go. I prom- 
ised the girls I’d stay here with the ponies.” 

“ But you must come,” he urged, trying to 
keep a smile on his face while he ground his 
teeth with impatience. “ Come along ; my 
carriage is right there, behind those bushes.” 

Accustomed to unreasoning obedience, Vio- 
let involuntarily stepped out of the pony car- 
riage, although it occurred to her, in the very 
act of following his rather peremptory direc- 
tions, to ask herself why she must go too. 

“ I suppose it would be asking too much to 
send him off alone,” she reflected nervousty. 
“ After all, he doesn’t need to help us. It’s 
just the kindness of his heart. Perhaps he 
thinks if I am along I can help to persuade the 
blacksmith that we really are in need of help.” 

Thus arguing, she walked slowly toward 
the thicket whither the man had hurried in 


158 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

advance, always keeping an eye over his 
shoulder, however, to assure himself that she 
was following. 

“ I wish the girls would come back,” she 
repeated uneasily as she mounted the high 
step of the vehicle. “ Are you sure your 
horse is perfectly safe, sir ? ” 

“ Yes, yes, it is the flies that make him so 
restless,” replied the man impatiently. “ Are 
you in ? Then off we go.” 

The man jumped in quickly beside her and 
drove — not back toward the highroad but 
straight on across the rough, overgrown field. 

“Oh, this isn’t the direction,” cried Violet. 
“You have to turn around to get to the 
road.” 

“ But this is a short cut,” replied the man 
in a quiet, self-confident tone. “ I know of a 
little village inland only a short drive from 
here, where the blacksmith-and-wheelwright 
is a friend of mine. It is not quite such com- 
fortable riding, but you are in a hurry, aren’t 
you ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, never mind the bumps,” replied 
Violet, resenting the idea that he should think 
she was putting her own comfort ahead of the 


TO THE RESCUE 


9 

need of quick action. “ Drive as fast as you 
think safe.” 

With great willingness the man complied 
with this request and whipped up his horse, 
for out of the tail of his eye he had caught a 
glimpse of one of the returning girls in an 
adjacent field. He wished he had had a top 
to his runabout. He talked as he drove, 
rapidly, aimlessly, about the state of the 
road, the weather, any subject to keep Violet’s 
mind from debating upon the recent incident 
or her own situation. He harped on the near- 
ness of the village and the intimacy existing 
between himself and the mythical blacksmith. 

“ We’ll be out on the road now as soon as a 
dead lamb can shake its tail, and the village 
isn’t five minutes’ drive. The blacksmith’s a 
great chum of mine, and I’m sure he’ll fix 
you up in no time. In fact, he’s under obliga- 
tions to me, and’ll be only too glad to do me a 
good turn. All you’ll need to do, miss, will 
be to smile your pretty smile and tell him 
what’s happened and he and I’ll do the rest.” 

Violet did not answer. They were going 
very fast and the jolting was almost unbear- 
able. Once or twice she bounced from her 


160 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


seat and the man put out his hand to hold 
her in. Violet shrank from his touch. She 
was growing more and more uneasy and the 
conviction that she had made a mistake took 
shape and rooted itself in her mind. 

“ I think — I’ve changed my mind,” she 
stammered between jolts. “ Please, sir, let 
me out. I want to go back to the girls. I 
promised them I’d wait with the ponies. Oh, 
sir, please stop and let me out.” 

“ What nonsense ! ” 

“ I don’t think so, sir. I want to get out. 
Please stop,” and in the extremity of her 
nervous fear, Violet seized the reins and tried 
to bring the horse to a stop. 

“ Here, here, none of that. Let go at 
once,” cried the man sharply. “ Don’t do 
that again, young lady, or we’ll have a bad 
runaway. Here’s the road and we’ll have 
better going. Sorry I jolted you about so. I 
didn’t know it was so rough.” 

“ It isn’t the roughness I mind,” replied 
Violet piteously, “ but oh, please, please stop 
the horse. I must go back, I must indeed. 
We are getting farther from home every 
minute, and what will the girls think ? ” 


TO THE RESCUE 161 

“What indeed ?” laughed the man, and 
added hastily, “ And won’t they just be 
doubly surprised when we get back again 
with a blacksmith and all his tools ?” 

His tone was so reassuring that for a mo- 
ment Violet felt her apprehensions lulled. 
But her fears soon returned and redoubled. 

“Oh, I am so scared,” she whispered; 
“ please, sir, take me back. Never mind 
about the wheel. We can get home without 
it; indeed we can. We can ride the ponies 
home. Please, please take me back.” 

The man felt more uncomfortable under 
this pathetic pleading than he had when 
witnessing her panic, and experienced a fleet- 
ing regret that he had embarked on the 
undertaking. 

“ You make it mighty hard on a fellow to 
be kind to you,” he said with pretended gen- 
tleness. “ What if I did stop now and let 
you out? ” 

“ Oh, if you only would ! ” 

“ Just as soon as you got your breath you’d 
say, well, there was a nice man to go part way 
toward helping me out of a trouble and then 
backing out and leaving me in the lurch,” he 


j 62 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


argued, still keeping the horse at a good pace. 
“ No, ma’am, I ain’t that sort. When I start 
out to help people, I do it.” 

Violet looked about her with terrified gaze. 
They were going swiftly — much too swiftly 
even to consider jumping out of the high car- 
riage — over a smooth, level road entirely un- 
known to her. Where were they and where 
was he taking her? Surely they had been 
driving much longer than five minutes, and 
yet no village was in sight. What did the 
man intend to do ? 

Suddenly and convincingly the truth flashed 
upon her ; she was being kidnapped ! At the 
terrible realization she shrieked and again 
snatched madly at the reins. The horse gave 
his head an angry shake at the sudden twinge 
of pain, and with a plunge took the bit be- 
tween his teeth and bolted. 

But Violet was far too terrified by her own 
situation to be frightened by that. Indeed, 
she was glad the horse was running away. If 
they smashed up it would mean at least that 
the man could not go away with her any 
farther. Oh, if some one would only come 
to stop them, and then rescue her ! 


TO THE RESCUE 163 

The horse dashed madly down the road, the 
frail carriage swaying perilously from side to 
side. They passed a farmer’s cart and the 
driver, drawing his own team well to the side 
of the road, stood up and stupidly stared after 
them. There was nothing he could do to stop 
the runaway. Violet shrieked at him, and 
waved her arms wildly as they passed. He 
caught her frenzied cry of “ Help,” and shook 
his head with a fatuous grin. 

Fear at length paralyzed Violet’s nerves. 
She cowered down in her seat and stared, 
wild-eyed and shivering, before her. The man 
had no time for her. His whole attention was 
concentrated on bringing the horse back under 
control. Fortunately the road was smooth 
and comparatively straight, and he was a 
fairly good horseman. At last their mad 
speed lessened, and once again they were pro- 
ceeding at a normal pace. The man removed 
his hat with one trembling hand and drew his 
sleeve across his forehead. 

“ Whew ! That was a close shave ! ” he mut- 
tered. 

But the escape gave Violet no sense of hap- 
piness nor even relief. She felt that they 


1 64 LETTY'S GOOD LUCK 

must have gone a thousand miles in those few 
awful moments. She was in a strange, horri- 
ble land. Home and friends had ceased to 
exist. What was she to do ? What was to be- 
come of her ? 

Presently houses appeared on either side of 
the way, and signs of a town. In the distance 
she saw a railroad track and the smoke of a 
locomotive. Hope began to revive. If they 
passed through a town she could call out until 
some one took heed and stopped them to listen 
to her story. The man watched her cun- 
ningly, guessing her intentions. 

“ We’ll be there pretty soon now,” he said. 
“ Feel very bad after our scare? ” 

“ No. I feel all right and anxious to get 
back to my friends.” 

“ All right. That’ll come in good time,” he 
replied soothingly, as if addressing an unrea- 
sonable child. “ Now, when ” 

They passed an elderly couple in a phaeton 
and Violet leaned quickly over the side and 
called out to them : 

“ This man won’t let me out. Won’t you 
please help me ? ” 

The old couple stared after them dully. 


TO THE RESCUE 165 

They were both deaf and had not heard Vio- 
let’s words, but her manner impressed them. 
But after a moment’s slowing of their pace, 
they drove on. 

“ Oh, come, now, don’t do that,” remonstra- 
ted the man. “It won’t do any good at all, 
and’ll only make people think you’re crazy.” 

“ It will do good,” answered Violet fiercely. 
“ Those people did not understand me, but I’ll 
repeat it until some one does.” 

“ Say, can’t we come to some sort of under- 
standing? I’ll tell you what : I own up we’ve 
come too far. This ain’t the village I intended 
to come to. The turn was off back there where 
you started up the horse. I ain’t blaming 
you, you understand, and I got the horse 
slowed up as soon as I could. You know that. 
Now, there’s a railroad station here, and if 
you’ll agree to come along peaceful, and not 
get excited, I’ll take you back home on the 
train. I will, honest. Where is it you live ? ” 

“ Sea Side,” mumbled Violet, wondering if 
he were really sincere. 

“ Well, we’ll go along back on the train 
and leave }mur friends to get out of that 
broken wheel mess by themselves. I hate to 


1 66 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


leave people in the lurch, but — you see how 
it is.” 

“ As long as you take me back to my 
friends, I will ask nothing more.” 

“ And all I ask is that you come along 
peaceable and don’t cut up rough or get 
people worked up over any sort of mistake. 
You understand? No talking to people.” 

Violet turned on the seat and eyed him 
steadfastly. The man reddened and moved 
restlessly under her close scrutiny. Violet 
felt uneasy and horribly afraid. The man 
was not to be trusted. 

“ I shall have to speak to some one,” she 
said abruptly. “ I shall have to borrow money 
of some one to buy my ticket.” 

“ I’ll buy our tickets.” 

“ I don’t want you to go with me.” 

“ Then I’ll buy your ticket,” he said, avoid' 
ing argument to soothe her fears. “ Come 
now, that’s fair enough. Will you agree?” 

“ I’ll see when we get to the station,” re- 
plied Violet coldly. 

They had entered the village by this time 
— quite a thriving little town — and her spirits 
and courage rose. Surely nothing could hap- 


TO THE RESCUE 167 

pen to her in the midst of a lot of people like 
this 1 

They drove up to the station and alighted. 
A youth who exchanged signs with Violet’s 
escort, unseen by the girl herself, came for- 
ward and offered to hold their horse ; the 
man bade Violet wait in the carriage while 
he went inside to buy the ticket and find 
out the hour of her train. After a moment’s 
hesitation Violet remained seated in the car- 
riage. But only until the man had disap- 
peared inside the station door. Then she 
alighted, told the man who was holding the 
horse that she would return directly, and 
walked swiftly to the corner of the building. 
But the youth was at her side in an instant. 

“ Say, come back here, you,” he said surlily. 
“ You had orders not to leave, see? ” 

“ How dare you speak to me like that ? ” 
cried Violet indignantly. “ Go away this 
instant or I shall call a policeman.” 

“Aw, none of that. Shut up and come 
back, d’ye hear? ” 

Violet turned and walked on, but the youth 
put his hand on her sleeve and actually 
dragged her back to the side of the carriage. 


1 68 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 


“ Let go my arm instantly ! Oh, won’t 
some one help me ! ” cried Violet piteously. 

A small crowd gathered. One or two were 
about to interfere when the youth grinned 
and winked over Violet’s shoulder and tapped 
his forehead significantly. Violet’s companion, 
seeing the crowd, rushed out. Violet heard 
him call over his shoulder : 

‘‘You say the train for town leaves in five 
minutes? ” 

“What’s up?” asked a policeman, shoul- 
dering his way through the crowd. 

“ Oh, please, please save me ! ” called Vio- 
let, striving to shake off the youth who clung 
to her roughly. 

“There ain’t nothing wrong,” declared Vio- 
let’s companion, shouldering his way between 
her and the officer. “ This young lady is my 
sister and for the time being — you under- 
stand? — she thinks we’re trying to ” He 

shrugged his shoulders and tapped his fore- 
head, as the youth had done. 

The policeman shook his head and turned 
away. 

“ Poor young lady. Her eyes do look that 
wild,” he commented. 


TO THE RESCUE 169 

When Violet saw the policeman turning his 
back upon her, her despair was complete. 

“Oh, what shall I do, what shall I do?” 
she wailed. “Will nobody help me?” 

Her tone was so full of terror and agony 
that the policeman turned back in distress. 

“ That sounds bad,” he said commiserat- 
ingly. “ Ain’t the young lady got any female 
relations to stay with her? She seems afraid 
of you, young man.” 

“ Oh, that is just part of her ailment. The 
doctor told me to expect it. You know sick 
people often turn against them they’re fondest 
of. Don’t speak to her, boss ; it’ll only make 
her worse.” 

In his anxiety to prevent the policeman 
from addressing Violet, the man had raised 
his voice so that she heard almost all of what 
he said. 

“ Oh, sir,” she cried eagerly, breaking away 
from detaining hands, “ I am not sick, truly 
and honestly, and I am not crazy. This man 
is stealing me ! Just look at his face and see 
if I am not telling the truth ! ” 

The man shook his head dismally and 
smiled pityingly. 


170 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

“ It’s a bad case,” he said to the policeman 
and the crowd generally. “ And it hurts. 
But the doctors say it's not hopeless.” 

Violet faced him with flashing eyes. 

“ You know you are not telling the truth,” 
she said simply. 

A deep silence succeeded her few words. 
Plainly, the sympathy of the crowd was shift- 
ing. The silence was broken by the whistle 
of an approaching locomotive. 

The man grasped Violet’s wrist and started 
to run across the platform, clearing a path 
through the crowd with rough pushes of his 
free arm. Violet resisted, pulling back with 
all her weak strength and calling wildly for 
help. 

“ Let me go, let me go at once,” she cried. 
“ I will not go on the train. I will not, I will 
not ! ” 

The crowd stood by apathetically, uncer- 
tain whether to interfere or not, and awaiting 
the action of the policeman. The train was 
approaching with a roar and a clang. Sud- 
denly a new sound broke upon the air — the 
raucous honk of a motor horn. Violet, slip- 
ping, sliding, pulling back from the impelling 


TO THE RESCUE 


171 

hand of her guide, looked over her shoulder 
and uttered a shriek of joy. 

“ Miss Terlowe ! Miss Terlowe 1 Molly I 
Letty I Here I am ! ” 

The crowd looked around ; so did the 
policeman. The conductor of the waiting 
train stared curiously, glanced at his watch 
and called “ All aboard.” Violet heard the 
cry and exerted a superhuman force to resist 
the effort she anticipated to pull her on the 
train. The motor was approaching swiftly, 
filled with frightened, excited faces. The oc- 
cupants had heard her cry. Unexpectedly Vio- 
let’s hand was released and she fell backward 
in the crowd. A dozen hands were reached 
out to pick her up, the motor drew up to the 
platform and Molly, Letty and Miss Terlowe 
sprang out, laughing and crying and calling : 
“ Where is she ? Where is she ? ” 

Violet was on her feet before any one had 
time to help her up, and threw herself into 
Miss Terlowe’s arms. The policeman woke 
to a sudden consciousness of the real situation 
and looked around to arrest the man. The 
train was disappearing around a bend and the 
man had vanished with it. 


CHAPTER XII 


JUST IN TIME 

Molly and Letty sped upon their different 
ways with nimble feet. Molly soon realized 
that Letty’s surmise had been right, and that 
there was no habitation ahead of her nearer 
than Bear Creek Village. She scrutinized her 
surroundings carefully to assure herself of 
this fact and then turned to retrace her steps. 

But Letty, recognizing landmarks at every 
step, hastened on and soon came upon the 
barn in question. A good-natured, loutish 
boy was sitting under the shade of a gnarled 
old oak tree, lazily mending a bit of harness, 
and whistling blithely. Letty had to speak 
several times to make her voice heard above 
his tuneful notes. 

“ Oh, please,” she shouted, coming close to 
him. “ We have had a breakdown over in 
that field and won’t you help us ? ” 

The boy looked up, stopped whistling and 
grinned. 


172 


JUST IN TIME 173 

“ I don’t know nothin’ about automobiles,” 
he said, “ and Pa’s got the bosses down the 
field. We’ll tow you, though, if you’ll wait 
till he comes up.” 

“ But it isn’t an automobile ; it’s a pony 
carriage. We’ve broken a wheel and I 
thought perhaps we could borrow one some- 
where to get home with.” 

“ Borrow what ? A pony carriage or a 
wheel ? ” he grinned. 

“A wheel. Why not? A wheel is a 
wheel.” 

“ But all wheels ain’t the same size, nor is 
all axles. What size is your wheel ? ” 

“ Oh, about so big,” answered Letty, mak- 
ing a vague circle with her arms. 

“ Sho, that don’t tell nothin’. What’s the 
size? ” 

“ I don’t know. I never measured. It’s — 
it’s pony carriage size.” 

“ Thanks for the official information,” he 
mocked her, but rising as he spoke. “ Come 
along, let’s have a look at the rig.” 

“ But haven’t you a spare wheel that you 
could bring along just to try?” urged Letty, 
who thought it a pity to waste so much time. 


174 LETT Y'S GOOD LUCK 

The boy scratched his head thoughtfully. 

“ Well, there is an odd wheel or two lyin' 
about. The buggy’s got her front wheel off — 
and there’s the wheelbarrer ! ” he added as if 
seized with a brilliant inspiration. 

“ I’m afraid that would be too small, but 
can’t we take them both, and try ?” suggested 
Letty. “ I’ll carry one.” 

“ I dunno as Pa ” 

“ Oh, we’ll pay you for the wheel, of course, 
and for your time as well,” broke in Letty, 
believing that to be the reason of his hesita- 
tion. “ Do come on ; my sister is waiting there 
in the hot sun and she’s not very strong. I’ll 
make it all right with your father.” 

This decided the boy. It was not desire of 
reward, but the inability to act upon his own 
responsibility that had made him hesitate. 
As soon as some one else assumed that respon- 
sibility he was active enough. 

He went into the barn, fetched two wheels 
slung together over a carriage jack, and thrust 
a heavy wrench into his pocket. He gallantly 
refused to let Letty carry one of the wheels, 
as she had offered, and together they hurried 
back across the rough, neglected fields, Letty 


JUST IN TIME 175 

explaining as they went how the accident had 
come to pass. 

“They are waiting just there, beyond this 
little hill,” she said presently. “ I hope your 
load isn’t too heavy.” 

Imagine her frightened astonishment, when 
they crested the slope, to see in the field 
beyond the pony carriage, still awry in the 
rut, but empty and with only one pony at- 
tached. 

“ Why — why, where can she have gone ! ” 
gasped Letty, “ and Punch gone too ! What 
can it mean ? ” 

The boy scanned the horizon and pointed 
out a small object faint in the distance. 

“ Is that there your sister, riding hossback 
off that way ? ” he asked. 

Letty stared after the vanishing object. 

“ It looks like Punch with a girl on him. 
I can’t tell. What should she have gone off 
there for ? And riding so fast ! ” 

Letty was almost stupefied with bewilder- 
ment and fright. Suddenly her eye caught a 
flutter of paper, and she ran swiftly across to 
the carriage. A note, scribbled in such violent 
haste as to be almost illegible, had been tucked 


176 LE TTY'S GOOD LUCK 

under Judy’s collar at a conspicuous angle. 
It said : 

“ Violet has been kidnapped. I am follow- 
ing on Punch. Go for help. They drove 
toward Jenksville. Fly ! Molly.” 

Letty finished reading the note just as the 
farm boy reached her side, and she let it fall 
from her hand as she sank, limp and faint, on 
the grass. The boy picked up the note and 
read it. He whistled his dismay. 

“ Hi,” he exclaimed roughly, shaking Letty 
by the shoulder. “ You ain’t got no call to 
faint. We got to do something. Gee whiz ! ” 

His rough words and the shaking roused 
Letty. 

“ Of course we must. Where is Jenks- 
ville?” 

“It’s straight down the back road. You 
run down to the highroad as fast as you can 
cut, stop the first auto you see and make ’em 
drive you there like lightning. There’s a 
road across just cpiarter of a mile below. I’ll 
go back home and telephone the Jenksville 
police. How was your sister dressed ? And 
then I’ll go fetch Pa to come after you, in case 
you need help.” 


JUST IN TIME 177 

Letty murmured a word of thanks, gave a 
description of Violet and her clothes over her 
shoulder and fairly flew down the rough lane 
she and the others had driven into so light- 
heartedly, scarcely half an hour before. A 
motor was whizzing past just as she gained 
the road, but either did not hear, or else paid 
no attention to her frantic shouts ; and Letty 
burst out crying. 

“ Why, bless the child, whatever in the 
world has happened ! ” ejaculated a voice. 

A second motor had been following the 
wake of the car Letty had tried vainly to 
stop, and its occupant was no other than Miss 
Terlowe, who experienced a distinct shock to 
see Letty there, alone, in that state. Nothing 
short of a runaway and Violet’s sudden death 
could have caused such grief, she felt sure. 

“ Oh, I’m so thankful it’s you ! ” ejaculated 
Letty and climbed into the car. “ Please 
drive like the wind, and turn to your left at 
the first crossroad. Oh, don’t miss the turn,” 
she called to the chauffeur. “ Oh, Miss Ter- 
lowe, please tell him to go,” she panted as the 
chauffeur hesitated. “ I’ll explain, but we 
must not lose a second.” 


178 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

And she did explain, as much as she her- 
self knew. Miss Terlowe realized the gravity 
of the situation, and bidding her chauffeur 
press forward as rapidly as safety permitted, 
tried to soothe the almost hysterical Letty. 

“ It is going to turn out all right, dear child. 
Molly, you say, is on their track. She won’t 
lose sight of them if she can help it, and you 
say that farm boy is going to warn the Jenks- 
ville police by telephone. Go faster, Pierre, 
faster.” 

Near Jenksville they overtook the two ve- 
hicles Violet and her abductor had passed. 
These worthies had been made to realize 
finally, when Molly, wild-eyed and dishev- 
eled, riding astride a pony, had stopped them 
to ask information concerning Violet — they 
had realized that something was amiss and 
had turned their jogging steeds. And still 
nearer the town the}' came upon Molly her- 
self, still urging the exhausted pony onward. 
Punch had risen to the occasion nobly and 
had trotted willingly along as far as he was 
able; but he was old and fat and his endur- 
ance had reached its limit. As the motor 
drew up beside her Molly gave a joyful shout 


JUST IN TIME 179 

and tumbling off the pony, was about to 
abandon him to his fate, but Letty, her “ rul- 
ing passion strong in death,” sprang out of the 
motor and picketed the poor blown pony to 
the fence rail. As the car started forward 
again the chauffeur called over his shoulder : 

“ I hear a train, ma’am ; may I let her 
out ? ” And taking permission for granted he 
threw open the throttle, and regardless of 
“ borough laws 11 they sped through the little 
town at breakneck speed. 

What followed would always be hazy in the 
minds of those who lived through the experi- 
ence. Indeed, everything happened together. 
As Miss Terlowe and the girls jumped out of 
the car, the station agent came running out of 
the building with his instructions from the 
police headquarters to prevent any passengers 
departing on the train ; the police officer on 
hand, to whom Violet had appealed so vainly 
for protection, blustered about and tried to 
find a culpable person upon whom to perform 
his duty ; and it was discovered in the midst 
of the confusion that the second man, or boy, 
had disappeared also with the horse and run- 
about. 


1 80 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 


“ Never mind all that now,” said Miss Ter- 
lowe impatiently, as the policeman insisted 
upon taking down all their names, addresses 
and detailed descriptions. “ We have the child 
back and now must take her directly home to 
her mother.” 

Before they could get away Letty’s new 
friend, the farm boy, rode up on horseback 
with his father, and he agreed to take charge 
of Punch and Judy, and to bring them back 
to Sea Side as soon as Punch had recovered. 

“ I’ll give him a good rub down, miss, and 
lead him along slow to our house,” he said. 
“ I’m glad you got your sister back. I guess 
I’d better keep the ponies a day or two, ’f you 
don’t mind, and let the little un get his wind 
back. I’ll take good care of ’em. I like 
hosses, don’t I, Pa? ” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones had been spared sus- 
pense or even anxiety, for by the time the 
motor, with its exhausted, excited passengers, 
had reached Sea Side it was still wanting half 
an hour of the time she had expected the girls 
back. 

So elastic are the spirits of youth that the 
girls had already recovered from the first 


JUST IN TIME 1 8 1 

shock of their experience and were more ex- 
cited than frightened. But Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones, as may be imagined, did not take the 
shock so easily, and was ill the rest of the day. 

Violet herself soon fell under the strain of 
reaction and for several days she had a violent 
headache and repeated nervous chills, a result, 
the doctor said, of overtaxed nerves. But 
these did not last long, and before the week 
was out, she was quite ready to discuss her ex- 
perience and to accept the position the other 
girls assigned her, of a veritable heroine of 
romance. 

Unfortunate to relate, although Violet’s 
rescue came just in time, the Jenksville 
policeman did not recover his wits so oppor- 
tunely. He did everything in his power to 
correct the foolish mistake he had made at 
the railway station ; he was most active in 
corresponding with Mrs. Hartwell- Jones re- 
garding details of description concerning the 
man, and he journeyed to New York more 
than once to inspect a suspected character. 
The ally, with the runabout, was traced to a 
large town some ten miles up the coast, and 
arrested. But the peculiar “ honor among 


182 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


thieves,” which exists in the criminal class, 
kept him from “ peaching on his pal,” as he 
graphically expressed it, and after a short 
term in prison he was freed to go back to his 
fellows — no doubt to be welcomed with open 
arms. Violet’s abductor was never found. 
It is only to be hoped that he has by this 
time encountered a policeman with sharper 
wits and is being made to suffer righteous 
retribution. 


CHAPTER XIII 


LETTY GOES VISITING 

“Oh, Letty,” exclaimed Mary Beckwith, 
hurrying into the house one bright morning 
about a week after Violet’s adventure, “have 
you read your letters this morning ?” 

“ They haven’t come yet. Why ? ” asked 
Letty with interest, guessing from Mary’s 
manner that something pleasant was about 
to happen. “ What’s up ? ” 

“ Why, a letter from Meta Lowell. She 
has heard about your motor trip to Narragan- 
sett, and is going to invite you all to stop over 
with her at Watch Hill. She thinks I am 
going on the trip too, and she wants you and 
me to go on ahead of the others and have a 
visit with her.” 

“ Oh, wouldn’t it be jolly ! But I don’t be- 
lieve I can,” added Letty soberly. “ We may 
give up the motor trip.” 

“Oh, what hard luck! Isn’t Violet-Mary 
any better ? ” 


183 


1 84 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

“ Oh, yes, I think she's all right, but Aunt 
Mary is so nervous and upset still.” 

“ Well, then, I should think the motor trip 
would be the best thing for her — to get her 
mind off.” 

“ Exactly what Mrs. Emlin says. But tell 
me more about Meta's letter.'' 

“ Here, read it for yourself, and here comes 
the boy with your own letters. We got 
ours extra early to-day because the chauffeur 
stopped for them on his way back from taking 
father to the early train.'' 

The arrival of the morning mail was a sort 
of magnet to draw every one to the veranda 
and Violet and Mrs. Hartwell-Jones appeared 
on the scene together, with the conventional : 
“ Is there anything for me ? ” 

“ Oh, Mary,'' exclaimed Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones, as Mary acquainted her with Letty’s 
prospective invitation, “ I don't see how I 
could ever consent to Letty's going ! I feel 
as if I could never bear to let either of my 
girls out of my sight again.” 

“ But I'm going too, Mrs. Hartwell-Jones. 
Mother said I might. And Letty and I 
will stand by each other on the trip, won't 


LETTY GOES VISITING 185 

we, Letty ? No harm can come to us to- 
gether.” 

“ That’s what I believed when Molly, Violet 
and Letty all went off* together the other day,” 
answered Mrs. Hart well- Jones with a shiver. 

“ But we won’t separate. We’ll stick as 
close as — as the Siamese twins,” laughed Mary. 
11 It’s such a short journey and you can pick 
up Letty on your way to Narragansett.” 

“ Well, we’ll talk it over later. Has Letty 
got her letter from Meta yet? ” 

“ Yes, Aunt Mary, right here,” answered 
Letty herself, waving the note she had been 
reading. “ And you have one, too. I should 
love to go.” 

“ Would you, Letty mine?” asked Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones wistfully. She never could 
bear to deny Letty anything. “ Well, we’ll 
see.” 

And in the end, Mrs. Hartwell-Jones con- 
sented to the proposed visit. Her own good 
common sense, as well as the counsel of all 
her friends, assured her that it would be 
foolish to deprive Letty of what promised to 
be a very interesting visit merely because of 
her own fears and nervous apprehension. 


1 86 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


“ I shall be utterly wretched every second 
of the time Letty is out of my sight/’ she con- 
fided to Miss Terlowe, “ but after all, I must 
not punish Letty for my own sore nerves. I 
fancy this district is safer from any attempts 
to molest young people than it has been for 
years. Violet’s experience has thoroughly 
roused the vigilance of the local police. Just 
the same, how happy I shall be when we start 
on our motor trip and I have Letty back at 
my side again.” 

“ I appreciate your feelings entirely, dear 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, but after all Letty must 
learn to look after herself if she is to follow a 
career in the world. Don’t make her too soft 
and dependent.” 

“ You are right,” admitted Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones sadly. She was tempted to add, “ But 
you cannot altogether understand when you 
have no children of your own.” She was glad 
that she had not said it when Miss Terlowe 
went on, with a wistfulness in her voice that 
was tragic : 

“ I am selfish enough to be glad that the in- 
vitation is not for Violet, but that I may have 
the pleasure of her presence a few days longer. 


LETTY GOES VISITING 187 

I shall be gone when you return from your 
motor trip. I must start rehearsals for my 
new play, you know.” 

“ I hope you feel strong and well for all the 
work that is in store for you ? ” 

“ Yes, indeed, thank you ; I am wonder- 
fully improved. And I think a great deal of 
my renewed spirit is due to the happy hours 
spent with your sweet daughters, Mrs. Hart- 
well-Jones. There is nothing so good for jaded 
spirits as contact with healthy, bright young 
people. And I hope the intercourse is not to 
cease? You will bring Violet — and Letty, 
too, of course — to see me when you get back 
to town ? ” 

“ You know well that nothing would give 
them greater pleasure,” replied Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones, smiling. “ And what you say of Letty 
is so true,” she added with a sigh. “ I must 
help her to fit herself for standing alone in the 
world. She herself feels the necessity.” 

“ I took the liberty of giving her some ad- 
vice ; did she tell you ? ” 

“ To study in a big conservatory ? Yes, and 
I see the wisdom of it, Miss Terlowe.” 

“ So does Madame Henri ; she and I have 


1 88 LE TIT'S GOOD LUCK 


talked it over. I hope you don't think me 
interfering, but I have seen so many girls fail 
just because they had not begun in the right 
way. They had real talent, many of them, 
but got discouraged and failed merely because 
they started out with the idea that they were 
fitted to begin as stars." 

Just then Letty joined them, and eyed their 
grave faces with concern. 

“ I hope you aren't reconsidering about my 
going to Meta?" she asked eagerly. 

“ No, child, and you ought to be at the 
packing of your trunk if you are to start to- 
morrow." 

“ It’s done. I hadn't so very much to put 
in." 

“ I'm afraid you are not exactly equipped 
for a fashionable house party," sighed Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones. “ I had not anticipated any 
such excursions into the gay world when I 
planned your summer wardrobe." 

“ But I think Letty has lovely clothes," 
chimed in Miss Terlowe. “ That is one thing 
made me notice your girls in the beginning, 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones. I admired the simple, 
tasteful way in which they were dressed." 


LETTT GOES VISITING 189 

“ Oh, thank you, Miss Terlowe. I feel that 
way, too. Aunt Mary always has the very 
best taste, I know. Only you see Meta Low- 
ell’s friends are rather apt to be butterfly ish, 
and they are a little older, so of course they 
dress up more.” 

“ Then you will have the added advantage 
of being distinguished among them,” replied 
the great actress quietly. 

These few words of common sense reconciled 
Letty completely to her simple summer ward- 
robe, and she put in the last things with a 
light heart. 

“ There’s one thing I shan’t need to worry 
about, anyhow,” she said gayly, “ and that is 
how I am to wear my hair. Won’t the be- 
curled and be-Marceled young ladies envy me 
when I come out of bathing, or if we have a 
rainy day ! ” And she rumpled her short 
brown curls complacently. 

The journey was to be very simple and easy. 
John, the Beckwiths’ long-tried and true 
chauffeur, was to motor Letty and Mary down 
to Sag Harbor, and himself see them actually 
on board the boat for New London. Mary 
had taken that trip at least once a summer 


1 90 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

ever since she was a baby, and was a particular 
friend of the captain. He, in turn, was to put 
the girls on board the train, in care of the con- 
ductor, as far as Westerly, where Mrs. Low- 
ell’s automobile would meet and convey them 
to Watch Hill. 

These plans were all carried out to the 
letter, the unexpected did not happen, and 
Letty sent an enthusiastic, comprehensive 
telegram to Mrs. Hartwell-Jones from West- 
erly. 

Meta was delighted to see them and de- 
clared that she had parties and excursions 
enough planned to keep them busy the rest 
of the summer. 

“ Can you stay only two days ? ” was her 
first speech after greetings and introductions 
were over. “ There is so much to do. And 
some of the girls I asked can’t get down until 
Monday. They had other week-end engage- 
ments.” 

“ Some of the girls,” echoed Letty, thinking 
of her trunk full of plain white “jumpers” 
and simple muslin dresses. “ How many 
have you asked ? ” 

“ Oh, there are only four here besides your- 



c c 


y 


RUN UPSTAIRS AND GET READY 




LETTY GOES VISITING 191 

self, counting Grace Howard. You both know 
her ? ” 

“ Yes,” answered Mary without enthusiasm, 
and went on quickly, to hide her feelings on 
that subject, “ You know I have to go back 
on Monday, Meta, because Max is bringing 
down all those boys of his class for a week. 
Life is going to be strenuous.” 

“ I wish you could side-track them off to us,” 
replied Meta enviously. “ The male element 
is sadly lacking here. It’s the one drawback. 
But we girls pretend we don’t care. We call 
ourselves suffragettes.” 

“ What for?” 

“ To seem independent. It makes us feel 
less wall-flowery when we haven’t enough 
partners to go ’round at the dances. But run 
up-stairs and get ready for tea ; it’ll be in in 
a minute now, and I want you to meet all the 
girls.” 

“ But mayn’t we say how-do-you-do to your 
mother first?” objected Mary, who had old- 
fashioned ideas of politeness. 

“ Oh, you’ll see her at the tea tray,” an- 
swered Meta carelessly ; “ she is probably 
dressing now, or beautifying. Do come along 


1 9 2 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

up. I hope you girls don’t mind rooming 
together,” she added as they reached the 
upper hall. “ I thought you’d like that bet- 
ter than each going in with a strange girl.” 

“ Mercy, yes ; we’ll take great comfort in 
each other, won’t we, Letty ? ” answered Mary, 
with more frankness than tact. 

“Well, Letty, what do you think of it?” 
she asked, confronting her friend as the door 
was closed. “ I suppose we are expected to do 
4 beautifying,’ too.” 

“ Whatever shall I do?” asked Letty with 
a groan. “ I believe I’ll get a sick headache. 
Did you see Meta’s dress ? My very best bib 
and tucker will look old-fashioned and shabby 
beside it, let alone the dress I had expected 
to wear in the evenings when there was no 
party.” 

“ Well, let’s not dress at all now. Our 
trunks haven’t been brought up, anyhow, 
and I haven’t a thing in rny bag, have you? 
We’ll just wash up and brush our hair like 
tidy little girls and go down,” and going into 
the bathroom adjoining, Mary began to suit 
her action to her word. 

“ I’d no idea Meta was such an elegant 


LETTT GOES VISITING 193 

young lady,” commented Letty, going to the 
dressing-table and beginning to brush her 
hair. “ This house isn’t a bit bigger than the 
Rubber Band, Mary — I doubt if there are as 
many rooms. And yet it gives me a terrible 
feeling of magnificence. That short trip up 
the stairs was like a processional and the very 
way Meta said ‘ we’ll meet at tea ’ sounded 
like a great function.” 

“ Oh, it’s just their way. I mean the way 
of the so-called fashionable world. They like 
to put on lots of lugs. Pardon the slang, my 
dear, but nothing else will describe it. Don’t 
let them bluff you into thinking they’re a 
superior order of beings. Let’s just wear our 
plainest clothes and grandest manner. With 
a little management and good acting we can 
make those silly girls feel that they are 
cheap and out of taste — if they are all like 
Grace Howard,” she added vindictive^. 
“ Meta didn’t tell me she was going to be 
here.” 

“ Gracious, I hope they aren’t all as old as 
she,” added Letty fervently. “ Why, she’s 
coming out this winter, isn’t she?” 

“ Yes ; and you’d think, from the way she 


i 9 4 LETTY'S GOOD LUCK 

talks about it, that she was to be presented 
at Court at the very least. But come along ; 
we don’t want to be late, anyhow. Are you 
ready ? ” 

“ Yes, as soon as I get a clean handkerchief. 
Oh, I wish I had worn my suit to travel in, 
as Aunt Mary wanted me to, instead of this 
jumper. The jumper is lots cooler, but I feel 
like a kid in it,” replied Letty nervously. 

“ Rubbish ! Just carry it off in a free and 
easy way, as if you were dressed in the latest 
scream. Follow my lead,” answered Mary 
reassuringly. “ Come along.” 

As they were about to leave the room, they 
were arrested by a deprecatory knock on the 
door. 

“ Your trunks, miss,” explained a pretty 
chambermaid, dressed like a soubrette. “ Mrs. 
Lowell says to tell you she is sorry they were 
not sent up sooner, and she will wait tea if 
you wish to change.” 

“ Perhaps I’d better,” said Letty doubt- 
fully, and wondering, if she did change, 
whether she would be expected to make still 
another toilet for dinner. 

“ Of course not; it’s too much bother,” an- 


LETTT GOES VISITING 195 

swered Mary, positively. “ Besides, it would 
take too long. I’m as hungry as a bear.” 

“ Very well, miss,” spoke up the maid who 
had been listening with secret amusement. 
“ Might I have your keys ? ” 

Letty resented this personal attention. She 
would infinitely have preferred unpacking 
her own trunk, but she surrendered her key 
meekly, as did Mary, whose independence 
could not cope with every phase of the new 
customs, and then they went down-stairs to 
seek their hostess and be introduced to the 
other guests. 

The hall and drawing-room were empty, 
but the girls followed the sound of talk and 
laughter to an awninged terrace at the back 
of the house. On their progress thither, they 
encountered a footman, who turned and 
piloted them gravely. 

Mary, in a simple suit of dark blue linen, 
with her neat braids pinned up, looked quite 
grown up and equal to any emergency, but 
Letty looked absurdly childish and overgrown 
in her white Peter Thomson frock and short, 
curly hair. She was quick to see and feel the 
little pause that followed their entrance upon 


196 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

the terrace, and the exchange of swift, amused 
glances among the three or four exquisitely 
gowned young ladies who sat or semi-reclined 
about a Lucullus-laden tea table. Meta ran 
forward to meet them, and Mrs. Lowell’s 
greeting was hearty and natural, in spite 
of an ultra elegant tea gown of pink chiffon 
and very evident “ beautifying.” It is pos- 
sible Letty might have felt at her ease again 
if it had not been for Grace Howard, who sud- 
denly caught both her hands and exclaimed : 

“ What an adorable child ! Do give me a 
kiss.” 

Letty blushed and turned away furiously. 
She bit her lip to keep back an angry retort 
and Mary, indignant at the unnecessary re- 
mark, took up the cudgels for her friend. 

“ Hello, Gracie,” she said with easy famil- 
iarity. “ Have you got over your disappoint- 
ment about not getting asked to the 1 Mid- 
Summer’ club? My sister said all the good 
words she could, and the Prom, was great 
fun, they tell me. I’ll probably go next 
year.” 

This was mean revenge, perhaps, but Mary’s 
blood was up in Letty’s defense. The “ Mid- 


LETTT GOES VISITING 197 

Summer ” club was a very exclusive series of 
summer dances, the privileged guests being 
entertained in turn by various country clubs 
and Casinos. To be invited was a great 
honor, not very easily obtained, as Grace 
Howard had discovered to her sorrow. 

“ Oh, the Mid-Summer is quite out of date, 
they tell me/’ drawled Grace in her most 
grown-up voice. “ When I asked your sister 
for an invitation I did not know who was on 
the Board. Only old fogies, I’ve found out 
since.” 

“ Thanks, since sister Ellen is one of them,” 
laughed Mary good-naturedly, and changing 
the subject. She knew that she had scored, 
and did not want to be rude. 

Letty slipped into a hard, uncomfortable 
seat behind Mrs. Lowell, refused all her favor- 
ite cakes and nibbled at a stale macaroon, 
overcome with embarrassment and self-abase- 
ment. 

“ If this is what Meta calls having a good 
time, I wish I had never been included in it,” 
she thought miserably. 


CHAPTER XIV 


A WEEK-END 

When Mary and Letty went up to dress for 
dinner that evening they held a council of 
war. 

“ I do think it was pretty mean of Meta to 
get us here with all those dressy, would-be 
grown-ups, when she knows what sort of 
clothes we have for Sea Side,” scolded Mary. 
“ How many best dresses have you brought, 
Letty ? ” 

“ Only one best-best, for a possible party,” 
admitted Letty. “ I thought my pink muslin 
and white dotted swiss would be plenty good 
enough for ordinary nights, just as they are at 
home.” 

“ So they are, and we’ll show these girls we 
think so. I was going to suggest that we 
shine out in our best, to dazzle them. But 
we couldn’t keep it up, could we? ” 

“ Not unless we went home to-morrow,” 
answered Letty ruefully. 

198 


A WEEK-END 199 

“ Well, that would be foolish and would be 
putting ourselves down to their level, anyway. 
Let’s show them that we’re not afraid to be 
simple and girlish. After all, Letty, we are 
only children, and so are they under all their 
aping. Grace Howard is older, of course, but 
not the world-wise and weary creature she 
would have us believe her.” 

“ Do you remember,” answered Letty, “ how 
in 1 Little Women ’ Meg went to visit Sally 
Gardner, and found j ust this sort of fashionable 
gathering? We won’t make the mistake she 
did, of getting furbished up and feeling silly 
and unnatural. I am going to put on my 
pink muslin, so here goes.” 

Dinner was a long, magnificent affair. 
Indeed, rather longer than usual, for Meta had 
planned no particular entertainment for her 
friends and was inclined to delay the return 
to the drawing-room and terrace. Letty had 
rather a good time, on the whole, for she was 
hungry and enjoyed her dinner, and as Grace 
Howard, on her left side, let her completely 
alone, as too young to notice, and Mr. Lowell, 
around the corner at the foot of the table, was 
too absorbed in his own meal to converse, she 


200 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 


did not have to exert her conversational powers. 
By the time dessert was on the table, however, 
he found time to attend to his daughter’s 
guests, and asked Letty abstractedly where 
she was spending the summer. When she 
told him, he looked more interested and asked 
if that were not the place where MissTerlowe, 
the actress, was spending the summer. 

“ I have money invested in the management 
that stars Miss Terlowe,” he explained, “ and 
I am interested in her health.” 

“ Well, she is very much better,” replied 
Letty coolly, who thought this a very cold- 
blooded reason for being interested in any- 
body’s health. 

Grace Howard pricked up her ears and 
turned. 

“ How do you know she’s better — except 
from seeing her in the distance, I suppose,” 
she said. “ Of course you don’t know her at 
all.” 

“ Oh, but I do, very well indeed,” answered 
Letty demurely. “ It was only last week that 
she was of the greatest help to us,” she added, 
her face softening and growing serious at the 
recollection. 


A WEEK-END 


201 


“ What is it, Letty ? Do let us all in on it, 
if it's a good story,” called Meta from the 
other end of the table, and as she spoke, every 
one rose and Mrs. Lowell led the way to the 
terrace, where coffee was to be served. 

It was a beautiful night; the moonlight 
glimmered radiantly upon a sea of silver, and 
a soft west breeze lent coolness to the air. But 
the sea appeared to be a very secondary con- 
sideration in this perfectly regulated house- 
hold. It was a background, perhaps, but 
nothing more. 

“ Now for the story, Letty,” said Meta, 
knowing that the most trite anecdote about so 
celebrated a personage as Miss Terlowe would 
hold the attention of her guests for an interval. 

“ And tell it all, Letty,” added Mary, want- 
ing Letty to come in for her own glory. 
“ Begin with finding the ring.” 

“ How romantic that sounds,” murmured 
Grace Howard, adjusting her scant draperies 
in an artistic outline as she semi-reclined in a 
chaise-longue. 

So Letty told, simply and quietly, the tale 
of her finding of Miss Terlowe’s ring, the 
resulting friendship and the exciting rescue 


202 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


of Violet from the hands of the kidnapper. 
It was easy to see that she rose several 
notches in the esteem of her listeners. 

Presently three or four young men strolled 
nonchalantly out, Mr. and Mrs. Lowell retired 
indoors to play bridge with neighbors, and 
the company broke up into little groups. 
Letty and Mary felt decidedly de trap and 
presently, pretending fatigue after their 
journey, they excused themselves and went 
up to their own room. 

“ Oh, must you go up so early ? ” exclaimed 
Meta, detaching herself from a group and 
joining them. She felt a little guilty. 
“ Come on over here and talk. Perhaps 
we’ll dance later, to the phonograph, if the 
rest don’t think it too hot. Well, then, if you 
really are tired, I suppose you’ll be happiest 
in bed ; and oh, girls, just ring when you 
want your breakfast and it will be brought up 
to you. We don’t appear, generally, until 
about ten or eleven. Good-night, and be 
sure to ring if you haven’t everything you 
want.” 

“ Ugh, breakfast in bed ! ” ejaculated Letty 
when they were safe in the privacy of their 


A WEEK-END 


203 

own room. “ It will make me feel like an 
invalid again. No wonder all these people 
have a sort of depressed look.” 

The girls undressed and stayed awake quite 
late, chattering and comparing their impres- 
sions. 

“ I was dying to suggest a good rousing 
game of hide-and-seek in the garden. The 
moonlight was plenty bright enough,” said 
Mary, “or, if that would spoil the girls’ 
clothes, * Up-Jenkins ’ around the dining- 
room table. Do you suppose they do this 
every night, all summer long? 99 

“Imagine sitting around in tight, last 
winter’s cast-off finery, and thinking you are 
enjoying life ! Meta says to-morrow night is 
going to be very gay, with a hop at the 
Casino or hotel or somewhere. I don’t know 
whether they have a Casino here, but a dance 
will be fun.” 

“Why didn’t you show them the aqua 
marine Miss Terlowe gave you?” asked 
Mary presently. 

“ Oh, a bit of vanity on my part. I’m go- 
ing to wear it to the party to-morrow night, 
and when any one admires it it will be such 


204 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

a joy to say carelessly, 1 Oh, you think that 
pretty? It’s a little thing Miss Terlowe gave 
me the other day. 7 ” And the girls both 
laughed, for Letty had hit off Grace Howard’s 
blas6 tones to the life. 

Mary climbed into bed with a yawn. 

“ Hark, there goes the phonograph. I’m 
glad I’m not down there doing the one-step 
with those tailors’ dummies. I hope they’ll 
have some real boys to-morrow night.” 

“ Goodness, I hope so ! Did you try talk- 
ing to any of them to-night? The one I said 
a few words to could hardly pronounce his 
own name.” 

“ They think it’s fashionable to talk that 
way,” responded Mary. “ Yes, I’m ready ; 
put out the light. Hark, some one is sing- 
ing! I wonder Meta didn’t ask you to sing, 
Letty.” 

“ I was half expecting it myself,” admit- 
ted Letty ruefully. “ That’s the phonograph 
again, singing — a rag-time song.” 

The girls sat up in bed a few minutes, listen- 
ing to the faint sounds that floated up to them 
from below ; then Mary turned over and 
said good-night. But Letty lay for hours, 


A WEEK-END 


2°5 

tossing and turning. The bed was deliciously 
soft, and the embroidered sheets gave a sensa- 
tion of elegance, but somehow it lacked com- 
fort. The moonlight stole away from the 
open casement, and the eastern sky was pal- 
ing for the early summer dawn before she 
settled into anything like $ restful slumber, 
and consequently it was late when she awoke. 

The down pillows and linen sheets felt 
more cozy by daylight and she found it very 
luxurious to lie there, curled up and half 
dozing, knowing that it did not matter when 
she roused herself or dressed. Mary, coming 
out of the adjoining bathroom partly dressed, 
* waked her at length. 

“ You lazy thing,” she laughed. “ It’s nine 
o’clock. Are you being demoralized already? 
Trot along into your bath ; I’ve started it for 
you. Shall I ring for breakfast?” 

When Letty emerged, fresh and rosy from 
her cold tub, she found a low table, set with a 
most delectable breakfast, drawn up before 
the window and Mary, in her wrapper, al- 
ready pouring chocolate. 

* “ Sit down, Miss Sybarite. This isn’t much 
like ‘ late for breakfast again, my dear ; fine, 


206 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


two sheets to hem/ is it ? I’m going to dwell 
on this part of my visit to my precious, old- 
fashioned mother. ,, 

“It is pretty nice for a change, isn’t it?” 
admitted Letty, yawning. She did not want 
to mention her bad night because she would 
have to own up to homesickness. “ And 
really, Mary, if fashionable people always live 
like this, do you wonder that they never ac- 
complish anything really worth while? It is 
demoralizing, isn’t it ? ” 

“ It sure is, but it’s boresome too,” answered 
Mary, who was feeling very well and energetic 
after a long night’s sleep. “ Let’s go for a 
walk, just by our two selves, when you’ve 
dressed. I dare say it’ll be the only real exer- 
cise we’ll get all day, except the dancing to- 
night.” 

“ And that depends upon whether any one 
asks us to dance,” laughed Letty. “ I need a 
walk to help me shake off the enchantment 
of all this laziness.” 

Mary was wrong about the exercise, for 
tennis was having a revival among fashion- 
able circles and as Mary and Letty both played 
well, they were kept busy practically all day. 


A WEEK-END 


20 7 

“ I have an invitation for lunch at the 
Randalls' with a limited number," Meta an- 
nounced as the house party assembled on the 
terrace about mid-morning. “ Who wants to 
go?” 

Every one hung back at first with murmurs 
of excuse or indifference, but it developed 
that Mary and Letty were the only ones 
who did not really want to go, and they saw 
the others off with no feeling of envy or re- 
gret. 

Mrs. Lowell was a woman of naturally sim- 
ple tastes, and she and Mary and Letty gath- 
ered around a lunch table much more simply 
served and dressed than would have been the 
case had Meta and her fashionable guests been 
present ; “ much more homelike," as Mary 
confided to Letty afterward, and then she left 
the girls to their own devices until tea-time. 
The time was most pleasantly spent, for Meta 
had privately telephoned to two of the younger 
boys to come around for tennis. They were 
jolly, wholesome youths, the court a good one, 
and it was with real regret that the girls saw 
the lunchers returning and were summoned to 
tea. 


ko8 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 


Thanks to their new friends, they had a 
very good time at the dance in the evening, 
and in their simple, but daintily made frocks, 
looked very distinguished among the over- 
dressed, over-curled damsels of Meta’s set. 
Letty enjoyed her little triumph about the 
jewel and also had the gratification of hearing 
her hair admired and envied, as the heat and 
exertion of the evening took their toll from 
patiently waved heads. 

To Letty’s surprise, Sunday was treated like 
any other day. Those who wished could go 
to church, but very few seemed to entertain 
that wish, and when Mary and Letty returned 
from morning service they found the entire 
house party assembled on the terrace, looking 
sleepy and dull. 

They motored that afternoon, and went as 
far as Wakefield, a town a few miles below 
Narragansett Pier. 

“ We could easily run on to Narragansett, 
get your papers and be back home in time for 
dinner, Letty,” said Meta. “ Would you like 
to?” 

“ Are we really so near as that? But no, 
please, because that would take out all the 


A WEEK-END 


209 

point of Mr. and Mrs. Emlin’s motor trip. 
But I did not realize the distance was so short. 
I shall have to read up my geography.” She 
laughed. “ It makes me think of the time 
Aunt Mary and I were staying at Hammer- 
smith and talked of going to Edgebrook to 
buy paper. I planned and talked, and it 
seemed like a long, important excursion and 
when we asked Mr. Parsons, our landlord, 
about it, we found it was less than twenty 
miles away.” 

The arrangement had been that Mr. and 
Mrs. Emlin, with their guests, were to get an 
early start from Sea Side on Monday morn- 
ing, and reach Westerly that same afternoon, 
where Letty was to be motored to meet them. 
Meta and Mrs. Lowell both had written very 
urgently inviting the entire party to spend 
Monday night with them, but Mr. Emlin, 
who preferred the independence of a hotel 
when touring, insisted that they would make 
too many guests for one household. Mary^ 
meanwhile, was to return home on Monday, 
as her mother wished her to be on hand be- 
fore the avalanche of college boys descended. 

Letty was dismayed, therefore, to receive a 


210 LETTY' S GOOD LUCK 

telegram on Monday morning saying that the 
motor party had decided to put off their start 
until later in the day, and would sleep at 
New London that night, picking up Letty en 
route Tuesday morning. The telegram came 
just as Mary was leaving, and Letty was 
strongly tempted to accompany her as far as 
New London and await the motorists there. 
She even suggested the plan to Mary. 

“ But that wouldn’t do at all. Why, in 
the first place, you don’t even know the name 
of the hotel in New London they are going 
to, and in the second place, Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones would never forgive me if I went 
off and left you sitting alone in a strange 
hotel.” 

“ I couldn’t fail to meet them if I went 
down to the boat landing, but you are right 
about my being alone in the hotel. Aunt 
Mary would not approve, I know, especially 
after her scare about Violet-Mary. No, I’ll 
have to stick it out, but, Mary, when you 
grow up and marry, please don’t go in for a 
fashionable existence or I shall never visit 
you.” 

“ You visited Lady Anvers and enjoyed 


A WEEK-END 


21 I 


yourself, and they are screamingly more fash- 
ionable than the Lowells.” 

“ I know, but that was so different — more 
real. This sort of life — but there, I’m still 
Meta’s guest, so mum’s the word, but a phrase 
from my literature sticks in my mind. 
What was Bacon talking about when he said 
it was 4 stale, flat and unprofitable’? He 
must have been just back from a fashionable 
week-end party.” 

“ You poor child, is it as bad as that?” 
laughed Mary. “ I wish I could stay and 
cheer you up a bit, as Aunty Doleful says, 
but remember that my dear friend Gracie is 
going this morning, too, having used up all 
her toilettes on this stand, so perhaps the at- 
mosphere will clear. Tell Meta to ask those 
nice boys over again for tennis.” 

Which advice Letty took, and the day did 
not pass so dully, after all. Nevertheless she 
was thankful when bedtime came and she 
could retire to count the hours until the 
motorists should arrive. 

“ And, oh, how glad I shall be to see Aunt 
Mary again ! ” she sighed. “ I hope I am not 
ungrateful to feel so disagreeable about a 


2i2 LETT T’S GOOD LUCK 


visit. I suppose Meta felt obliged to ask me, 
to pay back her visit to me, but I was not 
obliged to accept and as long as I am her 
guest I must act as if I enjoyed it. I guess 
I’ve been a little homesick.” 


CHAPTER XV 


AN EPISODE 

But Letty was doomed to another disap- 
pointment. Meta accompanied her in the 
motor to Westerly, which the Emlins ex- 
pected to reach at about noon, and they 
found the motorists awaiting them, but an 
incomplete party. 

“ Where is Aunt Mary?” asked Letty, 
when greetings had been exchanged. 

“ Oh, Letty, it is such a disappointment ! 
Mother had to go to New York.” 

“ Had to go to New York ! ” exclaimed 
Letty in astonishment. “ Whatever could 
take Aunt Mary to New York at this time 
of year? ” 

“ Oh, some business or other. I don’t 
know.” 

“ Wouldn’t it wait? ” 

“ Mother didn’t seem to think so. She got 
a letter from Mr. Shoemaker yesterday morn- 
213 


214 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

ing, just as we were ready to start, which 
made her change all her plans.” 

“ And is that why you didn’t start as early 
yesterday ? ” 

“ Yes, Letty dear,” put in Mrs. Emlin. 
“ We waited, hoping that Mrs. Hartwell-Jones 
could telephone her lawyer and settle every- 
thing that way, but she thought it wiser to 
go up to town herself. She asked me to tell 
you not to be too disappointed, and she is 
going to try to arrange her plans so as to 
meet us in New London on our way back 
and go across with us from there.” 

“ It's too bad, when she loves motoring so,” 
sighed Letty, greatly disappointed, “ and I’m 
afraid it’s awfully hot in New York.” 

“ I’m afraid so, too,” sighed Mrs. Emlin, 
“ but it can’t be helped. We did everything 
in our power to persuade her. Meta, dear, 
of course you are going to stop and have 
lunch with us? It was very good of you to 
bring Letty down. Ask your chauffeur to go 
back to the garage and get his lunch with our 
man. If you are all ready, girls, I think 
we’ll go in.” 

Luncheon was quickly over, Letty thanked 


AN EPISODE 215 

Meta politely and with as much heartiness as 
she could express, and they all started off to- 
gether, Meta alone in her car, waving a fare- 
well at the turning half a mile out of town, 
and Mr. and Mrs. Emlin, Violet, Molly and 
Letty in Mr. Emlin’s big touring car. 

Letty had looked forward to this moment 
with eager intensity for the past three days, 
and yet, like so many ardent wishes tardily 
fulfilled, it did not gratify her. She still felt 
aloof, alone, de trop. 

“ Mr. and Mrs. Emlin have their own affairs 
to talk about, and Molly and Violet-Mary are 
all in all to each other,” she told herself dis- 
mally. “ I am not really needed or wanted at 
all. Oh, why did not Aunt Mary come ? She 
and I would have paired off so nicely. I hope 
she isn’t really worried about anything.” 

The fact was that Letty was suffering from 
a bad headache. She never would have taken 
so mournful a view of things if it were not for 
that. She admitted as much presently, and 
Mrs. Emlin patted her hand sympathetically. 

“ Too much rich food and late hours, my 
dear. I know exactly how you feel. But the 
rush through this cool, salt air will fix you 


2 1 6 LETTY'S GOOD LUCK 


up in no time. Don’t try to talk, but just sit 
back and enjoy yourself.” 

They reached Narragansett in about an 
hour and a half, but although Letty had 
taken Mrs. Emlin’s advice about not talking, 
the headache still persisted, so she declared 
her intention of lying down to sleep it off. 

“ Will you mind if the rest of us go off and 
leave you, then, for a couple of hours or so? ” 
asked Mrs. Emlin. “ We have been told of 
an interesting old house a few miles above 
here, built in pre-revolutionary times, that I’d 
like to visit.” 

“ Oh, please go, dear Mrs. Emlin, and don’t 
have me on your mind.” 

“ I won’t, dear, only I promised your Aunt 
Mary that I wouldn’t let either of you out of 
my sight. But you will certainly be safe 
locked up here, won’t you?” 

“ Quite safe, and as comfortable as possible, 
thank you.” 

“ Well, I’ll hurry off then, for Mr. Emlin is 
waiting. You have everything you want, 
have you? And we’ll be back before dark. 
Good-bye, dear child.” 

Letty closed the shutters to shut out the 


AN EPISODE 


21 7 

glare, but with the slats open to let in the 
stiff sea breeze, and laid her head on the cool 
pillow with a thankful sigh. She fell asleep 
almost at once, for she was really tired. There 
is nothing quite so fatiguing as continued 
disappointment. 

She slept for several hours and woke, feel- 
ing much refreshed. Glancing at her watch 
she found it was after six o’clock and she 
wondered with a start if the motorists had 
returned. She knocked at the door of the 
room adjoining, which Molly and Violet 
shared, and receiving no answer, opened it 
and found the room empty. Then she heard 
a bell ring and returning to her own room, 
answered the telephone, fearful lest some acci- 
dent had befallen the excursionists. 

“ Hello, Letty,” said Molly’s voice at the 
other end of the wire. “ We are stuck, away 
up the road here, with a blow-out, and Aunt 
Isabel wants me to tell you that we’ll be 
pretty late for dinner. Are you all right? ” 

“ As right as right can be, thank you. I’m 
sorry for your trouble. Are you in a com- 
fortable stopping-place ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, we are all right, but Aunt Isa- 


2 1 8 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


bel felt anxious about leaving you alone so 
long.” 

“ Well, please tell her not to worry. I’ve 
got an interesting book, my headache is gone, 
and I’m as cozy as can be.” 

“ I’ll tell her. We’ll be home about eight 
o’clock. There’s a box of chocolates in Vio- 
let’s bag, and she says you’re to help yourself. 
Good-bye.” 

Letty laughed, hung up the receiver, and 
went in search of the chocolates. Life was 
looking more cheerful again. 

“ I wonder how Violet reconciled her con- 
science with the ‘ N. O. E. S.’ when she bought 
these,” she laughed, fishing the big candy box 
out of Violet’s bag and carrying it back to her 
own room. She got out her book and curled 
herself up in an easy-chair beside the window, 
quite content to munch and read in peace. 

But the busy scene beneath her soon en- 
grossed her attention and she put aside the 
book to look out of the window, which over- 
looked the broad ocean drive and prome- 
nade. A constant procession of fashionably 
dressed people moved back and forth, walk- 
ing, riding in carriages, automobiles and a 


AN EPISODE 


219 

few on horseback, talking, smiling, eagerly 
animated, or listlessly bored. Almost every 
type of human countenance known to man 
— or at any rate to society — was depicted 
and Letty felt as if she were in a box at a 
pantomime. 

Away to the left she could see a low build- 
ing with a broad terrace set with innumerable 
small tables, crowded with people, and beyond, 
a still greater crowd surging up and down past 
cheap-looking frame buildings. It was along 
there, she guessed, that Mr. Drake had his 
moving picture show. 

“ We’ll have to put off our visit to the 
Drakes until to-morrow morning,” she 
thought. “ By the time the others get back 
and we’ve had dinner, it will be too late to go 
to-night. But I don’t mind. I wonder why 
Mr. Drake has been so cranky about not send- 
ing the papers. Of course it’s been fun to 
speculate about them but I do think he’s rather 
silly. How glad I shall be to see the letters 
my own precious mother wrote to Ben ! I 
wonder if there will be anything about me in 
them.” 

She fell to dreaming about her dear mother, 


220 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 


who had died so many years ago, and of her 
early life, when presently her attention was 
caught by the sight of a poor woman, scantily 
clothed in dingy, ragged garments, standing 
in the crowd below. Two ragged children 
were clinging, bewildered and frightened, to 
her skirts, and she held a third in her arms. 
The background of handsome stonework that 
bordered the board promenade made a 
grotesque setting for the forlorn creature, and 
she stood out, alien and shunned, among those 
prosperous, chattering, well-dressed people. 
Clearly she had wandered far from her own 
station at the lower, poorer end of the town. 

But she had come with a purpose ; she was 
begging, and Letty watched with increasing 
indignation how the crowd brushed by, some 
ignoring, the others drawing their skirts aside, 
but no one heeding her appeal. 

“ Oh, the poor woman looks half starved. 
She is as thin and pitiable looking as Mrs. 
Smith at Bear Creek,” sighed Letty. “ And 
not a soul giving her a penny. I wonder if I 
could attract her attention and toss her some 
money from here.” 

She got up, took a coin from her purse, and 


AN EPISODE 


221 


returned to the window. But the woman had 
moved farther along, the street between was 
wide, and Letty realized that she could not 
possibly attract her attention without making 
enough noise to attract the attention of every 
one else in the immediate neighborhood as 
well. 

“ I’ll take it down to her,” she resolved, and 
left the window again when a sudden idea oc- 
curred to her. ‘‘Why not?” she exclaimed 
aloud. “ It would be great fun, and get her 
more money than I could possibly afford to 
give her. I'll do it.” 

Letty was in the mood for adventure, and 
did not stop for a moment to question the 
wisdom or prudence of her new thought. 
Crossing to her dress-suit case, she took out 
the white Peter Thomson jumper that had 
caused her such anguish upon her arrival at 
Meta Lowell's house. She put it on and 
fastened a dark skirt over, tucking the white 
blouse inside, both to make her costume as 
plain and inconspicuous as possible, and also 
to furnish something of a disguise. Then she 
went into the adjoining room and took the lib- 
erty of opening Violet’s traveling bag again. 


222 LETTY'S GOOD LUCK 

She rummaged about and finally found what 
she sought, a gray tweed traveling cap which 
Violet carried about with her and sometimes 
wore if the wind blew too strongly. This Letty 
put on, and laughed at the sight she repre- 
sented in the mirror. The cap was too large 
for her head, smaller than its ordinary size 
under the short crop of hair, and it came down 
over her eyes in a grotesque fashion. She 
tucked a narrow band of paper around the in- 
side of the crown, and it fitted better. 

“ I don’t mind its coming down over my 
eyes a little way,” she thought, “ for I don’t 
want to be recognized. Not that I know any 
one here, but the hotel people might think me 
queer.” 

She put her head out of the window again 
to assure herself that the beggar had not gone ; 
her dressing had taken longer than she had 
anticipated. The poor woman was still there, 
a little farther down on the promenade, and 
still receiving no response to her pleas. 

Letty opened her door and tiptoed down the 
corridor. The August dusk was already set- 
tling down, and it was quite dark in the pas- 
sage. She did not take the elevator but ran 


AN EPISODE 


223 

down the two short flights of stairs that led to 
the lobby of the hotel. This lobby seemed to 
Letty’s eyes terribly full of people, mostly 
men, but they were all absorbed in their own 
concerns and no one even looked up as Letty 
went by. She emerged, a little breathless, 
upon the darkening street, where electric lights 
were already beginningto gleam. There were 
not so many people passing now, she was sorry 
to see, but she hoped there would be enough 
to form an audience. She crossed to the op- 
posite side of the way and ran up to where the 
poor woman was standing. She had given up 
her begging for the moment and was soothing 
the whimpering child in her arms. She looked 
up with dull lack of interest as Letty paused 
before her. Certainly she did not expect to 
be addressed, or even given money, but her 
hand, palm upward, went out mechanically at 
sight of the silver coin Letty held out. But 
Letty did not pass on, as had all the others. 

“ I am going to help you,” said Letty gently. 
“ I have been watching you from an upper 
window of that hotel and I am so sorry. Are 
you an Italian? Do you understand Eng- 
lish ? ” 


224 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

“ Ah, yes, yes, me lika the English. I 
don’t do this — no-a. Not alway. My man 
he blacka the boot and make-a much mon. 
But he hurt his han’ — ah, dis free, four day 
pass — he no canna work-a the han’. The 
bambino an’ me, we hunger — yes. T’ank-a 
kindly for the help, pretty lady. The Sano 
tissimo Bambino will bless your pretty face — 
ah, yes.” 

“ But I am going to help you more than 
that,” replied Letty quickly. “ At least, I am 
going to try. Stand right there a moment, 
please, and listen.” 

Stepping forward to the edge of the pave- 
ment, she drew in her breath to get cour- 
age — it was not so easy as she had fancied, 
now that she was actually down here among 
all these people — and then she began to 
sing. 

She had chosen a very simple, old-fashioned 
melody, and her voice was a little shaky at 
first, but a low, rapt “ Ah-h-h ! ” from the 
music-worshiping Italian behind her was a 
sufficient stimulus, and putting her mind 
wholly on the kind impulse that had brought 
her there, Letty sang on, her voice rich and 


AN EPISODE 


22 5 

full and immeasurably sweet in the summer 
twilight. 

A crowd gathered. Automobiles stopped 
and people came hurrying up from all direc- 
tions, those nearest attracted and held by the 
singing, those behind curious to know what 
was going on and pushing close until they, 
too, got within sound of the voice and re- 
mained, charmed and delighted. 

“ Here, quick, make the little boy pass his 
cap,” whispered Letty to the woman between 
songs. “ Tell him to go to every one — those 
automobiles out there, too. Quick, while I 
sing another song.” 

She sang again, her eye on the success of 
the ragged, scared little boy, who held up his 
hat timidly to the listening throng, and who, 
in a very few moments, had to take both 
hands to his work, the cap had grown so heavy 
with its load. 

When Letty saw this, she knew that her 
mission had been successful, and she ended 
her song with a gay, triumphant little trill. 

“ There, it is enough to keep you until your 
husband’s hand is well,” she whispered to the 
woman. “ Good-bye,” and taking advantage 


226 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


of the surging forward of the crowd, she slipped 
behind a broad back and mingled with the 
crowd itself. 

Taking off her cap, she ran quickly down 
the walk and across to the haven of her hotel 
without once being noticed or recognized. 
Breathlessly she mounted the stairs to her own 
room and ran to the window to see what had 
become of the woman and her children. 

The automobiles and carriages had moved 
away, and the crowd on the pavement was 
beginning to break up ; but a good many still 
lingered, and peered about curiously, evidently 
hoping for another song from the mysterious 
street singer. Letty saw several of them 
questioning the beggar woman, but she could 
only shrug her shoulders and signify that a 
good angel had come to do the singing. They 
all left her presently, and then Letty had the 
satisfaction of seeing the woman approach an 
electric light and kneeling on the pavement 
(the now sleeping baby placed in the arms of 
its scarcely bigger brother) and, emptying the 
coins in her lap, begin to count them eagerly. 
Letty fancied she could almost hear the clink 
of the money as it fell, and she knew how like 


AN EPISODE 


22 7 

music that poor sound must be in the ears of 
the hungry woman. 

“ She can feed her children on it for a little 
while, at any rate,” she thought, “ until her 
husband’s hand gets well, or he can find other 
work to do. Goodness, how late it is. I must 
get dressed before Mrs. Emlin and the others 
get back.” 

Then she began to question, with many and 
growing misgivings, her recent action. 

“I wonder if I ought to have done it? 
What would Mrs. Emlin say if she knew I 
had been out on the streets alone, almost at 
dark, singing to crowds of people? Oh, dear, 
it sounds rather dreadful when I put it that 
way. But I did it for a good cause. I wonder 
if I need to tell Mrs. Emlin? I practically 
gave her my promise that I would stay right 
here until they all got back. Oh, dear, did I 
do wrong ? That poor woman looked so 
hungry and forlorn ! I don’t believe I need 
tell Mrs. Emlin. I’ll make a clean breast of 
it to Aunt Mary the minute I get hold of her 
alone. Oh, my precious Aunt Mary, if she 
were only here now, she’d understand. I 
don’t believe she’ll scold. 


228 LETT Y'S GOOD LUCK 


“ And what if they recognize me down in 
the hotel office? Well, even if they do, they 
don’t know I am the one who sang. They 
may think I only went out to listen. No, I 
won’t tell Mrs. Emlin, and even if my con- 
science does hurt, I’ve made one poor woman 
happy to-night.” 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE OLD ROBINSON HOUSE 

The motorists, meanwhile, were having a 
very enjoyable time. The old house they 
had come to see was very picturesque. Tall, 
gaunt, gambrel-roofed, it stood within its 
traditional New England dooryard, clean 
and furbished as a room. A huge clump of 
lilac bushes grew beside the front door-step — 
lilac bushes with a history, the smiling, white- 
haired woman who let them in told Molly 
and Violet. 

“ Of course there is a story,” she said, as they 
all stopped in the hall to admire and examine 
the wonderfully carved staircase of blackened 
oak. “ Come into this room and see the funny 
old tiles with Scriptural tales, and I will tell 
you the story of Hannah Robinson. This 
room has been kept as nearly like as possible 
to the state it was in when the house was 
built, back in seventeen forty-nine. Sit down, 
229 


230 LE TTT'S GOOD LUCK 

ma’am. And won’t the young ladies be 
seated ? Perhaps the gentleman would be 
more interested in the farmyard? My hus- 
band makes chickens his hobby, and has some 
prize ones.” 

Mr. Emlin agreed that poultry would be 
more in his line, perhaps, than a love-story, 
and went off, while the rest settled down to 
the delightfully feminine enjoyment of a real 
romance. 

“ It happened this way,” began the old lady 
complacently. She had told the story so 
often that she had got quite a professional, 
once-upon-a-time style. “ Young Hannah 
was a beauty, and the beaux all about the 
countryside courted her, but she had set her 
heart on a young Frenchman who had drifted 
somehow to this neighborhood. He lived in 
Wickford — that’s a village about six miles up 
the road. And Hannah she was fair en- 
thralled by him. I don’t know whether it 
was his foreign ways, or the dandified clothes 
he wore. Anyhow, Hannah was daft over 
him, and he, seemingly, over her. But her 
father would hear nothing of the affair, and 
at last forbade the young man his house. 


THE OLD ROBINSON HOUSE 231 

There was a great to-do over this and the 
young folk met in secret. Hannah’s mother 
helped her. Not that she cared any more 
than her husband for the Frenchman, but she 
could not stand it to see her daughter pining 
away. So nights, when her father was busy, 
Hannah would creep out to the lilac bushes — 
the same as you saw when you came in, 
young ladies, only they weren’t so big then, 
of course — and her mother would keep guard 
and give the signal if she saw her husband 
approaching. 

“ One night, when it was raining and sore 
disagreeable to be out, she had the young ones 
meet in the parlor — the room across the hall 
— and her husband coming in unexpected 
like, they had to hide the Frenchman in a 
closet — and a big come-down it must have 
been to his dignity, I think, for the closet’s 
not large. Yes, I’ll show it to you — surely. 
And Hannah’s own room, up above. It was 
my daughter’s room, too, until she married — 
happily, I’m proud to say. 

“ Well, the upshot of it was, of course, that 
they ran away and were married. Hannah 
and her mother both believed that, when the 


232 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

deed was really done, her father would come 
round and forgive them, and everything 
would be serene and happy. The young 
man was thinking the same, I make no 
doubt, and counting that the father would 
support them into the bargain. Leastways, 
he made no arrangements toward supporting 
his bride, and they were in a sore way. 

“Hannah’s father was in a fearful way 
when he heard the story, and would pro- 
nounce nary a word of forgiveness. He hired 
a house in Wickford for the couple to live in 
— they point it out to you this very day — but 
he vowed he’d never see his daughter again. 

“ Well, things went from bad to worse. 
The mother did what she could, but she had 
no means of her own and her husband kept a 
close e}'e on all she spent. She could barely 
keep the couple in food. Then one day the 
young husband ran away. To be sure, it was 
no worse than people had feared and expected, 
when they saw that Hannah’s father was 
implacable. Poor Hannah could not rally 
from this blow. She drooped and pined, and 
folks talked of the shocking way her father 
was treating her, until at last he came to hear 


THE OLD ROBINSON HOUSE 233 

what was being said, and his heart was melted 
toward his abandoned daughter. He went to 
Wickford and brought her home, but it was 
too late. The poor girl died almost as soon 
as she reached her home again ; the home 
where she had been so happy and then so 
miserable. And they say her repentant fa* 
ther didn’t long outlast her. 

“ And now, if the young ladies are ready, 
we’ll look at the house. I am sorry my story 
ended so sadly.” 

“ Poor young thing ! She wanted so to be 
happy,” murmured Mrs. Emlin, rising to fol- 
low their hostess. 

They rambled for some time around the 
quaint old interior, admiring the paneled 
rooms, the odd and beautiful carvings and the 
funny old Dutch tiles in the fireplace. Then 
Mr. Emlin came in to say that he had learned 
of another interesting locality to visit in the 
neighborhood. 

“ An old weaver lives not so very far from 
here, they tell me, and rather on our way 
home. He is a queer old character and weaves 
things b} r hand, Isabel. I am sure that will 
attract you.” 


234 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

The weaver was indeed a queer character, 
and they all lingered longer than they should 
have, perhaps. Mrs. Emlin bought two or 
three squares of quaint blue and white cloth, 
and ordered a counterpane of the same weave 
and design. Letty and Violet together bought 
one of the squares to take to Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones, and at last Mr. Emlin succeeded in 
making a start for home. The weaver’s house 
was on the way home, in the sense that it was 
nearer Narragansett than the old Robinson 
house, but it was on a back road that was 
composed chiefly of loose stones and sand, 
never intended for an automobile. 

The chauffeur was a clever driver and 
coaxed the car patiently through the ruts and 
hummocks. More than once they feared they 
were fast in a wilderness of sand. But they 
had nearly reached the highroad again when 
the tires, red hot with friction, suddenly re- 
belled and one of them blew out with a grand 
explosion that brought a farmer’s boy run- 
ning. 

There was nothing for it, of course, but to 
wait while another tire was put on, and the 
girls climbed out and sat on the rail fence, 


THE OLD ROBINSON HOUSE 235 

talking of their afternoon's experience and 
Hannah Robinson's romantic, sad love-story. 

“ Girls," called Mrs. Emlin from the car 
where she had remained seated, “ do ask that 
boy if he has a telephone in his house. I 
should like to get word to Letty that we'll be 
late." 

The girls ran off, telephoned Letty, as has 
been seen, and came back to their fence and 
their talk of Hannah Robinson and her lover. 

“ I don't believe I should ever fall in love 
with a Frenchman," declared Molly practi- 
cally. “ Madame Henri is dear, of course, 
and so is Mademoiselle, but I don't believe I 
should like so much — well, emotion, in a 
man. Not that I’ve ever met a Frenchman, 
but in books they are always embracing and 
even kissing each other when they are deeply 
affected." 

“ I suppose the French women don't mind ; 
they are used to it," answered Violet. 

“ Yes, but Hannah Robinson wasn't French, 
and I imagine, from the sort of man her 
father was, that she'd been brought up very 
strictly, and that it was not considered good 
form to show her emotions. Perhaps that 


236 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

was why she fell in love with the French- 
man, n she added thoughtfully. 

“ I wonder how the poor thing felt when he 
ran away and left her. No wonder she pined 
away and died.” 

“ Pooh, he wasn't worth dying for. It is 
very plain that he only married her for her 
money and when he found her father really 
wasn’t going to forgive them, he just pulled 
up stakes and went.” 

“ I wonder if those people who live there 
now are any relation to the Robinsons.” 

“ No, they aren’t. Aunt Isabel asked. But 
the woman had the story of Hannah Robin- 
son printed in a little book, and Aunt Isabel 
bought a copy to give your mother. She 
thought she might use it in one of her sto- 
ries.” 

“ Mother will be interested in the story, but 
I’m afraid she wouldn’t use it. She doesn’t 
like sad stories.” 

“ But she could make it have a happy end- 
ing.” 

“ Oh, I wish it could have had a happy end- 
ing — the real story, I mean. Just think how 
perfect it would have been if the Frenchman 


THE OLD ROBINSON HOUSE 23 7 

had turned out to be a great count or duke, 
with a vast estate to which he took his bride 
and forgave the cross father and had him over 
to visit them in their castle,” sighed Violet. 

“ Another ‘ what if.’ Did you used to in- 
habit that cozy little world of yours — the 
‘ wouldn’t-it-be-nice-if 7 world — before your 
mother found you again? When you were 
the ‘ little lame lace-maker 7 of Lyme Regis?” 

“ Oh, yes, of course. But I never dreamed 
anything one thousandth as wonderful as 
what really happened to me. And you know 
it was all through Letty that my mother 
found me. Just think, if Letty hadn’t been 
so generous and interested, coming to see me, 
and telling mother about me and all, why, 
mother might have gone on living there 
within a mile of me the whole summer long, 
and gone away without either of us having 
been the wiser.” 

“ It certainly was a ‘ happy ending, 7 and 
you both of you deserve it. I think you in- 
herit your love of happy endings from your 
mother, Violet. Did it ever occur to you to 
dream another * wouldn 7 t-it-be-nice-if 7 about 
her?” 


238 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

“ Wouldn't it be nice if — what?” asked 
Violet, genuinely puzzled. “ What can you 
be talking about, Molly ? ” 

“ I mean a happy ending to all her troubles 
— her husband being killed in that tragic way 
at sea, and you being lost to her for so long.” 

“ But she has me back, now — and Letty, 
too.” 

“ But she hasn’t her husband.” 

“ No — of course not. And I haven’t any 
father.” 

“ Would you like to have one?” 

Violet turned two large, startled eyes upon 
her friend. 

“ Molly Wilson, you are talking in an 
awfully funny way. What do you mean? 
Have you heard that my father was not killed 
in that shipwreck, as my mother believed, but 
is about to be restored to us in some mysteri- 
ous way ? ” 

“ Gracious, no ! Who but you would ever 
think I meant such a thing as that? I mean 
— have you ever thought — has it ever occurred 
to you that your mother might marry again ? ” 

“ Mercy me, no ! Who’s being fanciful and 
1 what-if-y ’ now ! ” laughed Violet. 


THE OLD ROBINSON HOUSE 239 

“ It isn’t so improbable. Your mother isn’t 
at all an old woman, even if her hair is white. 
That came from shock, you know. I don’t 
believe she’s a bit over five years older than 
he — or maybe six. Lots of women marry 
men ten and even twelve years older than 
they and 4 live happily ever after.’ ” 

“ And all this from the practical Molly 
Wilson, who teases me for being romantic,” 
scoffed Violet. “ You’ve even chosen the hus- 
band. May I ask whom you have destined 
for my future stepfather?” 

“ You needn’t make fun of me about it, or 
I won’t say another word.” 

“ But you must tell me who you think ! ” 

“ Not unless you tell me first whether you’d 
mind very much.” 

“ But if I said I did mind, you would refuse 
to tell me.” 

“ If you don’t say anything I shall think 
you mind a whole lot more.” 

Violet considered. She was still inclined 
to take the matter as a jest, but could not help 
feeling a little uneasy. 

“ Well, then,” she said finally, “ I don’t be- 
lieve I should like it exactly. I can’t get 


240 LETT T’S GOOD LUCK 

used to such an idea, even in fun. I suppose 
it would make some difference if I knew who 
he was.” 

“ All the difference in the world,” laughed 
Molly. “ You like him awfully, I’ll tell you 
that much.” 

“ If you mean that you want me to guess 
whom you’re thinking of, I just can’t, so you’d 
better tell me first off. Why, the only two 
men mother knows at all well that aren’t 
already married are Mr. Shoemaker and Mr. 
Jack Beckwith. And you surely wouldn’t 
think of Mr. Shoemaker in that way.” 

“ But why not the other ? I told you he 
was a wee bit younger than Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones.” 

“ Not Mr. Jack, surely ! ” 

“ Why so ‘ surely ’ ? I say, with the March 
Hare, 4 Why not?”’ 

“ But, Molly — he’s so — so young ! He’s our 
friend — and specially Letty’s.” 

“ I know, but he’s your mother’s friend, 
too. Why, don’t you remember, when Letty 
was so ill and you were all down at Lake- 
wood, how he came clear down there after 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones in his motor, so she 


THE OLD ROBINSON HOUSE 241 

wouldn’t have to wait for a train? If that 
isn’t devotion, I don’t know what is ! ” 

“ But it was for Letty’s sake.” 

“ Rubbish ! It was for Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones’s sake ! ” 

‘‘Why, Molly, I just can’t believe such a 
thing possible ! What makes you think so? ” 

“ Putting two and two together.” 

“ Has any one else said anything? ” 

“ No, but I think Aunt Isabel thinks as I 
do. But I’m not sure, so don’t go saying any- 
thing. And above everything, don’t say any- 
thing to Letty ! Promise me, Violet. I 
wouldn’t have said anything about it if I 
hadn’t thought it was so — so evident. Why, 
for example, think how badly your mother 
has felt this summer ; worried and absent- 
minded — not a bit like her usual self.” 

“ That’s true,” admitted Violet. “ I’ve been 
afraid mother has had something on her mind. 
And when she decided so suddenly to go up 
to New York, I felt sure it was business.” 

“ Not at all ; it’s Mr. Jack going away — so 
far and for so long,” declared Molly trium- 
phantly. 

Just then Mr. Emlin called out “ All aboard ” 


242 LETT Y'S GOOD LUCK 

to them, and the girls climbed down off the 
fence. 

“ Mind you are not to say a word to Letty,” 
Molly cautioned as they ran to the car. “ Not 
until your mother says something herself.” 

Violet nodded and sat looking very thought- 
ful all the way back to Narraganse^t. Mrs. 
Emlin concluded that she was overtired, and 
felt worried that they had had to make the 
day so long. 

“ We must not try to do anything to-night, 
girlies,” she said. “ Letty won’t feel like it 
after her headache, and you can all go straight 
to bed. Mr. Drake and his papers must wait 
until to-morrow.” 

“ We don’t mind, if Letty doesn’t,” replied 
Molly, watching her friend a little uneasily 
and wondering if she had said too much. 
“ Cheer up, Violet-Mary. Let’s talk some 
‘ what-ifs.’ ” 

They got back to the hotel after dark and 
found Letty dressed and waiting for them, a 
little anxiously. She said that her head was 
much better and that she had had a very com- 
fortable afternoon. She said nothing about 
the little episode of the singing. 


CHAPTER XVII 


MR. drake’s EXPLANATION 

Letty and Violet were delighted to receive 
a letter from their mother the next morning, 
written* from New York and saying that she 
would meet the motorists in New London that 
evening, as had been arranged beforehand with 
Mr. and Mrs. Emlin, and go the rest of the 
way' home with them. 

“ That means that we must have an early 
luncheon, so as to reach New London by the 
time Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s train is due there,” 
said Mr. Emlin, and went to interview the 
manager about ordering an early meal. 

“ And we must go to see your friend Mrs. 
Drake at once, Letty dear. Mr. Emlin has 
two or three people he wants to see here, and 
some arrangements to make about the car, so 
we will all go off independently of him.” 

“ Did Aunt Mary give you the address, Mrs. 
Emlin? I have it in my pocketbook, but I 
243 


244 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

thought she might have given it to you, too, 
in case I lost mine.” 

“ Yes, she gave me the addresses of their 
residence and of the moving picture theater. 
Suppose we try the theater first, as it is very 
near here.” 

They left the hotel and turned to the left, 
down toward the shabbier, more crowded part 
of the promenade which Letty had glimpsed 
from her window the day before. Letty 
looked about her a little uneasily at first, for 
it had occurred to her that her prot 6 g 6 e of the 
night before might be abroad, and it would be 
very awkward should she see and recognize 
Letty. But although they passed a great 
many foreigners of almost every country, 
none took the slightest notice of the little 
party, except the proprietor of a shop where 
they stopped to admire the pretty lacework in 
the window. 

“ Here we are,” cried Molly gleefully at 
length and they all paused in front of a con- 
spicuous sign reading : — Baily & Drake — 
Moving Picture Aerodrome — Three Perform- 
ances Daily. Come in and Get Your Money's 
Worth. Around the entrance were pasted large 


MR. DRAKES EXPLANATION 245 

posters, advertising and illustrating a “ three- 
reel drama of gripping power ” which looked 
rather sensational. A brisk, black-haired man 
with waxed mustaches approached and invited 
them to enter. 

“The show will begin in a very few min- 
utes, ma’am ; step right in. Price ten cents 
— children half price,” he said in a voice of 
habit, and laughed heartily over the closing 
phrase as he looked at the three tall, slender 
girls. His manner was so frankly familiar, 
without any of the veiled impertinence one is 
apt to encounter with people of his profession, 
that Mrs. Emlin could only be amused. 

“ We hadn’t thought of attending the 
show,” she said quietly ; “ we are here to see 
Mrs. Drake, the wife of one of the proprietors. 
Is she, by any chance, here or shall we call 
upon her at her lodgings ? ” 

“ Oh, you’ve come to the right place to find 
her all right, all right; her kid hands out 
programmes when there is any, and sells 
pa’m leaf fans, and let me tell you, Mrs. 
Drake is always where that kid is. And 
here’s the kid now,” he added, “so his Ma 
can’t be far behind.” 


246 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

He turned and beckoned to a chubby child 
of between four and five, who appeared from 
behind the glaring posters. Letty eyed the 
child with interest. He was chunky, tow- 
headed and dimpled ; quite an adorable child 
if he had been a little cleaner. But Letty 
could see no resemblance to the baby she had 
once loved so dearly. 

“Hi, kid, where’s your Ma?” called the 
black-haired man; “trot along and tell her 
there’s a lady here to see her — four ladies,” 
he added gallantly. “ Excuse me, madam. 
I forgot to present myself. I’m Baily — Harry 
C. Baily, esquire, part owner and proprietor 
of the and so forth, at your service. But say, 
won’t you all step into the office to wait for 
Mrs. Drake — that is, if you can all get in. 
’Tain’t the biggest office on record.” 

He led the way back of the posters, which 
revealed a narrow entrance, the center of 
which was blocked by a gaudily decorated 
ticket office. 

“ Here we are,” he said, opening a narrow 
door at the right. “ I guess you can all 
squeeze in. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go back 
to my duties. I’ll just make sure the kid 


MR. DRAKES EXPLANATION 247 

told his mother.” He started to go out and 
turned to speak a last word : 

“ I sure do hope you’ll take in the show. 
It’s a corker. We had such crowds that we’ve 
started a mornin’ exhibit. We calls it a aero- 
drome, but that’s ’cause we bought the sign 
from the other man that ran it before us. He 
just had a sort of tent screen and could only 
show at night. And rainy nights he didn’t 
have enough of an audience to pay gate re- 
ceipts, so to speak. But we’re all roofed in 
and electric lighted. It’s payin’ fine. I hope 
you’ll drop in on us.” 

“Thank you,” replied Mrs. Emlin gra- 
ciously, “ perhaps we will. I am glad you 
are so successful.” 

Mr. Baily bowed himself out and the four 
sat waiting in the tiny, stuffy little box of an 
office, studying the posters with which the 
walls were papered and wondering when Mrs. 
Drake would appear. 

They had scarcely expressed their wonder, 
however, when the sound of voices from with- 
out appraised them that not only Mrs. Drake, 
but her husband as well, were coming. And 
when they entered, the reason for the short 


248 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

delay was apparent to them all. Mrs. Drake 
had waited to wash up her small son, and she 
appeared, carrying him in her arms, her face 
wreathed in proud smiles at the honor done her. 

“ I’m sure we’re pleased to see you,” she 
exclaimed. “ My, my, Letty, but you’ve 
growed ! And you don’t mean to tell me 
that this here young lady is the sweet, sick 
young thing I saw that time at that party 
you gave, Letty — Miss Letty, I should say ! 
We’ve never forgotten that party, have we, 
Mr. Drake? I’m pleased to meet you, ma’am,” 
she added, as Letty succeeded in murmuring 
Mrs. Emlin’s name between Mrs. Drake’s 
rapid exclamations. “ Where’s Mrs. Hart- 
well-Jones ? Didn’t she come too ? ” 

“ She was detained at the last moment by 
business, I am sorry to say,” explained Mrs. 
Emlin. 

“ Oh, I’m sorry. I was hoping to have the 
pleasure of meeting her again. And so was 
Mr. Drake, wasn’t you, Mr. Drake? This is 
my husband, ma’am,” she added to Mrs. Em- 
lin, whose name she had not caught. “ Letty, 
would you have knowed the baby?” 

“ No, I never should in the wide world, 


MR. DRAKES EXPLANATION 249 

Mrs. Drake. He has grown so tremendously,” 
replied Letty, holding out her arms. “ Will 
you come to me? What a beauty he is,” she 
said aside to the mother. 

But the baby would not respond to her 
overtures. His manliness had been insulted, 
first by the vigorous face-washing, and sec- 
ondly by being carried in his mother’s arms 
and called “ baby.” He kicked and wriggled 
until he succeeded in getting out of his 
mother’s arms, and on his own legs once more. 
Then he thrust his chubby hands into dimin- 
utive pockets, and exclaimed, in a droll imi- 
tation of Mr. Baily’s brisk manner : 

“ Say, Pa, ain’t it time for the show ? You’d 
better get back on your job.” 

At this every one laughed so heartily that 
his brief assumption of manliness deserted 
him as speedily as he had acquired it, and he 
hid his abashed face in his mother’s skirts. 

“ I guess the kid’s about right,” Mr. Drake 
observed when the laughter had subsided. 
“ Would you ladies mind if I put off handin’ 
over the papers? We are hopin’, my wife an’ 
I, to have the pleasure of havin’ you as our 
guests for the performance. ’Tain’t so bad,” he 


250 LETTT y S GOOD LUCK 

ended lamely, “ and it’s to begin right off. 
Wife, you show the ladies to good seats while 
I go back and get things started.” And he 
bowed himself awkwardly out. 

There was nothing for it but to accept his 
cordial if somewhat clumsily expressed invita- 
tion, and Mrs. Emlin and the girls followed 
Mrs. Drake, who was still talking volubly to 
Letty, Violet and any one whose attention she 
could secure for the moment. 

“ We didn’t use to have a mornin’ perform- 
ance,” she explained proudly, as she conducted 
them out of the office and into the narrow 
entrance way, now blocked by a goodly crowd 
of people, mostly children. “ But we found 
we could make it pay, so here we are. It’s a 
real payin’ business, I tell you.” 

Their passage through the turnstile without 
the ceremony of buying tickets caused a mild 
sensation among the crowd, and Mrs. Emlin 
overheard one boy bluster : 

“ Gee, look at the nobs dead-beatin’ the 
comp’ny. They could afford to pay a darn 
sight more’n us, too.” 

Which criticism Mrs. Emlin felt to be per- 
fectly just. 


MR. DRAKES EXPLANATION 251 

The “ three-reel drama ” was fully as thrill- 
ing as the posters promised and the three girls 
enjoyed it thoroughly. But Mrs. Emlin grew 
a little restless toward the end, for she was 
thinking about the early luncheon that had 
been ordered at the hotel, and she guessed 
that Mr. Drake’s explanation about the papers, 
which was still to come, would be a trifle 
long drawn out. 

It was over in due time, however, and they 
found Mrs. Drake waiting for them at the 
door. As every one pushed and squeezed 
toward the narrow exit in good-natured haste 
to be outside, Mrs. Emlin shuddered at the 
frightful picture that flashed across her mind 
of this same situation and an alarm of fire. 

“ Mr. Drake says will you come along back ; 
there’s more room for us all there ; the office’s 
so small,” said Mrs. Drake, and they stepped 
aside to let the crowd pass. 

When the little auditorium was emptied, 
Mrs. Drake took them back into it again and 
through to a large room at the back. The 
room was rough finished, with hoardings, and 
a flimsy, rough floor. But it was compara- 
tively cool and shady after the heat and glare 


252 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

of the tiny theater ; and there were enough 
chairs for every one to be seated. 

“ Now then, ladies,” said Mr. Drake, feeling 
that he was the center of attraction for the 
moment, and the confidence of the successful 
impression of his “ show ” giving him addi- 
tional assurance, “ here’s this here precious 
bundle, and right glad I am to be rid of it. 
Miss Letty, I certainly owe you a ’pology fr 
keepin’ it back so long ; but you see, it hap- 
pened this-a-way — you’ve time for a bit of ex- 
planation, I hope, ma’am,” he interrupted 
himself to say, as he caught Mrs. Emlin con- 
sulting her watch. 

“ Oh, yes, we’ll wait. You see, we have to 
start early in order to get down to New Lon- 
don in time,” explained Mrs. Emlin. “ Pray 
go on, Mr. Drake.” 

“ I won’t be long, ma’am, but you see I owe 
it to Miss Letty here to tell her why I never 
gave her the papers right after her big brother 
died. I sure am sorry it all happened.” 

“ But nothing much has happened, Mr. 
Drake. Don’t have it so heavily on your con- 
science,” said Letty encouragingly. “ These 
are some old letters from my mother to Ben. 


MR. DRAKES EXPLANATION 253 

I shall be, oh, so thankful to see them, and 
I am so grateful to you for preserving them 
for me.” 

“Well, I guess your mother’s letters ain’t 
exactly the only treasure,” answered Mr. 
Drake cannily, “ and it was ’cause I kept ’em 
so careful that you didn’t have ’em sooner. 
Didn’t you ever put anything away so careful 
you couldn’t find it again, ma’am ? ” he asked, 
appealing again to Mrs. Emlin. 

“ Often. I am sure we all have,” replied 
Mrs. Emlin, smiling patiently. 

“ Well, then, to go back to the whys and 
wherefores. When I took on my circus — the 
one you and Ben was with me on, and Punch 
and Judy — but before you and him come to 
us ; when I took on the circus it was in part- 
nership with a man called Anderson, who 
wasn’t much of a man. Well, soon after, he 
disappeared — -just seemed like he was wiped 
off the face of the earth, with never a word 
left behind to say where he’d gone or why. 
Well, that was a little hard on me, but I went 
on runnin’ the circus alone as well as I could 
until bimeby hard times caught up with us, 
as Letty here will remember. 


254 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

“ Then I saw that most likely I’d have to 
sell out before so very long, and that there 
partnership worried me. Not that I wanted 
Anderson cheated out of his share, if I did 
sell out, although I’d done all the work in 
the business ; but I was afraid there would 
come up a question of signing partnership 
deeds, and if Anderson wasn’t around to put 
his fist to a sale, why, you see, I was kinder 
afraid there couldn’t be no sale. 

“ Of course I didn’t want to tear up the 
papers ; I didn’t know what sort of trouble 
that might land me into, and I couldn’t afford 
to talk to a lawyer. They tell me a lawyer 
will take your last dollar, just to tell you to 
come again next mornin’ ! 

“ Well, thinks I to myself, why say any- 
thing about the partnership, one way or 
t’other? By that time we’d heard that 
Anderson had gone to South Ameriky and I 
thought it more’n likely he was dead by that 
time from jungle fever or snake bite or one of 
the other unpleasantnesses you always get in 
South Ameriky, you know. So I just goes to 
the bank in the little town where our circus 
was showin’ an’ I asks the man how much 


MR. DRAKES EXPLANATION 255 

he’d charge f’r a box in his locked room. I 
told him as I had some vallyble papers to 
take care of for a little girl whose big brother 
had ’trusted ’em to me — I hope you don’t 
mind my usin’ your name in the business, 
Miss Letty — not that I give your name out 
an’ out, you understan’, but you was the little 
girl I was referrin’ to. I seen it would make 
the man more interested like, if he knew that 
I wanted the box for that use — and if he ever 
come to hear of any sellin’ out, he wouldn’t 
think I’d been concealin’ papers unlawful — 
which of course it wasn’t, you all under- 
stand. Only that seemed the easiest way to 
explain it. 

'‘Well, the upshot was, I got the box f’r a 
real reasonable sum, an’ put in all my papers, 
Letty’s bundle included. And the joke of 
the whole business was that I clean fergot ’t 
I’d put Letty’s papers in there, too. I told 
Ben ’t I’d done it, an’ he said he was glad, for 
then they’d be safe. Then — well, he died an’ 
there wasn’t time to remind me of anything, 
and so I went on clean forgettin’ about ’em. 
I paid the bank for the box reg’lar — ’twasn’t 
much — and only a little time back we heard 


2 $6 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

sure and true that Anderson had died out 
there in South Ameriky, and he’d sent a 
message back to me by his chum, to say he 
was sorry he’d left me in the lurch, but it 
couldn’t be helped at the time — an’ makin’ 
over to me any interest there might be left in 
the circus business. 

“In course I sent a line to the bank, sayin’ 
as how I didn’t need the box no longer; and 
they sent me the papers I’d be’n keepin’ 
there. I went over ’em, meanin’ to burn the 
partnership ones, of course, and there — well, if 
there wasn’t Letty’s bundle, all as safe and 
secure as the day Ben give it to me I 

“ I’d worried over the disappearance of that 
there bundle somethin’ sore, an’ my wife an’ 
me hunted for it many an’ many a time, 
always hopin’, with each new packin’ up or 
unpackin’ of our belongin’s, that it would 
turn up sooner or later ; and there it was. I 
declare, my wife she cried when she saw it, 
she was so relieved — and I near did myself. 

“ And so,” he went on, raising a finger 
toward his wife, who threatened to break forth 
into speech — a flow which only a strong stop- 
per of restraint could check from emulating 


MR. DRAKES EXPLANATION 257 

the traditional brook — “ and so, I made up 
my mind, then an' there, that that package 
wasn't ever goin' to leave my hands till I could 
put it right into Letty’s own hands, which I 
have just done, with all to witness, and I tell 
you, ma'am, an' all, it's a load off’n my mind, 
and that's a fact." 

He stopped at last, a little breathless, and 
mopping his brow with his handkerchief. 
Letty expressed again her thanks, and the 
assurance that no harm had been done, and 
Mrs. Drake was in the midst of describing her 
own emotions and sensations upon the finding 
of the package, when an interruption occurred 
in the discovery of what it was that had kept 
the “ baby " so quiet during the long recital. 
He had come across a can of baked beans, 
doubtless designed for the modest luncheon of 
the whole Drake family, had pried off the top 
and had eaten most of the contents. He was 
now licking his chubby fingers, which had 
served him as pre-historic fork — with the 
beatific smile of a full stomach. 

Mrs. Emlin was secretly alarmed over this 
gastronomic accomplishment, but she took 
quick advantage of the opening it gave 


258 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

her to propose something she had had in her 
mind. 

After the exclamations and laughter caused 
by this diversion were over she said to Mrs. 
Drake : 

“ I’m afraid he has emptied the family 
larder for the time being, and so, instead of 
bothering to send out for fresh supplies, 
won't you accept an invitation to lunch as our 
guests? I can't ask you to lunch with us, I 
am afraid, as we shall be in such a hurry, but 
if you will choose any hotel or restaurant it 
will give me such pleasure to tell the manager 
you are my guests. I am sure Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones would wish it, too," she added quickly. 

“ Oh, of course you will," exclaimed Letty, 
delighted that Mrs. Emlin had thought of a 
way in which to offer hospitality. 44 And, Mr. 
Drake, Aunt Mary told me I must surely pay 
you the rent on that deposit box, because I 
profited by it as much as you, you know." 

On this point, however, Mr. Drake's refusal 
was instant and firm. He would not even 
accept half, nor give Letty an inkling of what 
the amount had been. 

“ The idea of such a thing," he exclaimed 


MR. DRAKES EXPLANATION 259 

at last. “ Why, if it hadn't been for that — 
that darn old safety box, you’d ’a’ had your 
papers long years ago, when you should have 
had ’em. No sirree — that there’s my funeral, 
Miss Letty.” 

After this Letty was obliged to desist, but 
the arrangement for luncheon — or dinner, 
rather — at a near-by restaurant was made, and 
Mrs. Emlin, recommending paregoric in case 
of troublesome results of the baked-beans 
episode, and with the suggestion that the 
family dinner be put off for an hour or so, to 
allow the beans time to digest, bade the kindly 
souls good-bye, and she and the girls hurried 
back to their hotel to a belated meal and an 
impatient gentleman, who liked punctuality. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


A BUSINESS TRIP 

Violet and Molly could hardly wait to 
reach the hotel to see Letty open the package. 
The little bundle, very modest looking in its 
long, sealed envelope, had been talked of for 
so long that it had acquired a considerable 
importance and even mystery in the eyes of 
the girls, a mystery they were all impatience 
to solve. 

But Letty announced calmly that she did 
not intend to open the package until her Aunt 
Mary could be present to assist at the ceremony. 
The dismay of the other girls was almost comic. 
They expostulated, they coaxed, they teased ; 
but nothing they could say or do moved Letty 
in the slightest degree from her resolve. She 
would not even peep. 

“ Haven’t you any curiosity at all?” de- 
manded Violet a little crossly. 

“ Why, of course I have, and I want very 
260 


A BUSINESS TRIP 261 


much to see the letters, but I don’t want to 
see them until Aunt Mary can be with me. 
And I do think it’s selfish of you girls to 
keep on teasing me. It won’t do any good, 
so you may as well give it up first as last,” 
retorted Letty. 

“ I’m not selfish, and I think you’re mak- 
ing an awful lot of the whole silly thing. 
Keep your old papers as long as you like,” 
answered Violet, and flung out of the room. 

Letty stared after her in dismay. She had 
never seen Violet in such an ill-temper before. 

“ Why, Violet-Mary,” she ejaculated, run- 
ning after her. “ I didn’t mean to hurt your 
feelings. Please forgive me. And do tell me 
what’s the matter? What is it, Molly?” she 
appealed to the latter, who was brushing her 
hair at the dressing-table and who looked 
around, as astonished as any one at Violet’s 
abrupt entrance. 

The fact was that Violet’s small supply of 
strength had been overtaxed by the traveling 
and events of the past two or three days, and 
the excitement into which Molly’s astonish- 
ing surmises about her mother had thrown 
her was telling on Violet’s nerves. But she 


262 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 


was over her little tempest in a moment, and 
heartily sorry. 

“ You are right, Letty, of course, and it 
wouldn’t be any fun opening the package 
without mother. What a silly I was to fly 
off the handle like that. Does anybody know 
where I put my traveling cap? I think I’ll 
wear it this afternoon ; the wind is blowing so.” 

“ Oh,” exclaimed Letty guiltily, “ I’m afraid 
I left it in my room. I borrowed it for a 
few minutes yesterday, Violet-Mary. I saw it 
there when I was getting your chocolates, and 
thought you wouldn’t mind. I’ll get it for 
you at once.” 

“ But what in the world did you want my 
cap for yesterday?” asked Violet puzzled, 
when Letty had returned the borrowed prop- 
erty. “ You surely didn’t need it to lie down 
in.” 

“ Mercy, no,” laughed Letty. “ I was look- 
ing out of the window and saw a beggar 
woman with a lot of children ; she looked ill 
and half starved and made me think of poor 
Mrs. Smith, and I just had to give her some 
money. It was too far to throw it to her, 
so I just ran down. I’m sure Mrs. Emlin 


A BUSINESS TRIP 263 

wouldn’t mind. Thanks for the cap ; but, 
Violet-Mary, where did you get the choco- 
lates ? They must have cost a week’s allow- 
ance 1 ” 

Violet laughed and was about to explain 
when Mrs. Emlin’s voice at the door sum- 
moned them to lunch, and for the next hour 
all was bustle and haste, getting their lunch, 
putting forgotten articles into hand-bags and 
pinning on hats. Just as the automobile 
rolled away from the hotel door at length, 
Mr. Emlin noticed a ragged, thin woman 
standing near by watching them with eager 
eyes, and he pointed her out to Mrs. Emlin 
and the girls. When Letty turned she nodded 
and smiled and waved her hand, then turned 
quickly and walked away before Mr. Emlin 
had time to pull from his pocket the coin he 
had meant to bestow upon her. 

“ Is that your beggar of yesterday, Letty ? ” 
asked Violet. “ She seems terribly grateful. 
Did you give her such a lot of money ? ” 

“ Oh, no, very little — but I — I talked to 
her and told her how sorry I was, and she 
told me how her husband had hurt his hand 
or she wouldn’t have had to beg, and I guess 


264 LETTY’S GOOD LUCK 

it all made her feel — feel friendly toward me,” 
answered Letty hastily, and blushing in what 
Mr. Emlin thought a very engaging modesty 
at her charity. “ But, Violet, you were going 
to tell me about the chocolates,” she added, 
more as if desiring to change the subject than 
with any real curiosity to hear. 

“ Well, Miss Terlowe gave them to me, and, 
Letty, she’s joined the ‘ N. 0 . E. S.’ ” 

“ Bully for her ! How did you get her 
into it ? ” 

“ Oh, when she gave me the box of choco- 
lates I was just tickled to death, and said we 
girls hadn’t had any for so long that I was 
starved for them, and, without thinking, we 
told her about the ‘ N. 0 . E. S.’ and the Smith 
family and all, didn’t we, Molly? and she 
asked to join. And she’s subscribed to Mrs. 
Smith’s garden fund, too.” 

“ Oh, I am glad to hear that. And by the 
way, girls, Aunt Mary told me just as I was 
leaving to go to Meta’s that she’d had an 
anonymous contribution for our fund. Did 
she tell you girls about it? ” 

“Not a word,” exclaimed Violet eagerly. 
“ Who’s it from?” 


A BUSINESS TRIP 265 

They all laughed, and Violet, seeing her 
mistake, added with embarrassment : “ I mean, 
whom do you suppose it’s from?” 

“I can give a pretty good guess,” put in 
Molly shrewdly. “ How about Mr. Jack 
Beckwith ? ” Whereupon she and Violet ex- 
changed such knowing looks that Letty 
thought they must know more about the mat- 
ter than she herself, in spite of Violet’s dis- 
claimer. 

“ I wonder if Mr. Jack told Violet he was 
going to do it,” she thought a little dismally. 
“ It would be only natural, because he knew 
she was the most interested. He might have 
let me into the secret, though.” 

Aloud she said : 

“ Most likely it is Mr. Jack. I thought 
perhaps it was Miss Terlowe, but as you say 
she has just given you something, it wouldn’t 
be she. Mr. Jack gave me something, you re- 
member, before he went away, but I guess he 
wanted to do more without being thanked. 
Anyhow, we’ve got the money, Violet-Mary ; 
that’s the main thing, and I guess, with Miss 
Terlowe’s, you will have about enough to start 
the work on Mrs. Smith’s garden, won’t you ? 


266 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 


Oh, here is Wakefield, where we motored to 
on Sunday with Meta.” 

Then Letty recounted in more detail the ex- 
periences of her fashionable week-end party, 
the other girls related their experiences of 
the journey to Westerly, and so the hours 
slipped comfortably by until New London was 
reached. 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones had arrived at New 
London first, and awaited her two daughters 
with eager impatience. She had not had a 
happy time in New York, but her mind was 
relieved in one respect. She no longer had to 
face uncertainty and suspense. 

The letter from Mr. Shoemaker, which had 
so suddenly determined her to give up the 
motor trip and go to New York, had been 
more disquieting than any she had received 
all summer. While it hinted at a worse state 
of affairs than she had hitherto been led to 
suppose, it told her nothing definite, but on 
the contrary was full of vague promises of a 
happy ending. 

“ I wish I knew just how bad it all is,” she 
sighed. “Why does he not tell me, instead 
of writing about this, that and the other fail- 


A BUSINESS TRIP 267 

ing to pay dividends this time, but we are to 
hope for better luck next time. How can 
there be better luck if these concerns have 
failed, as his letter seems to imply ? " 

So she took the bag, packed so happily for 
the motor trip and a reunion with Letty, and 
caught the early train for New York. She 
delayed only long enough to engage a room in 
a certain small, quiet hotel, where she had 
stopped occasionally to eat a hasty lunch, 
and then was driven directly to Mr. Shoemak- 
er's offices. To her great disappointment he 
had already gone for the day. 

“ Was he expecting you ? ” asked a kindly 
young clerk, seeing her look of keen disap- 
pointment. “ Did you write ahead for an ap- 
pointment ? " 

“ No, there was no time. I got his letter 
only this morning, and left at once. I could 
have telegraphed from the station, but it never 
occurred to me, as I was coming directly here. 
I am so disappointed." 

“ I am sorry. Mr. Shoemaker has not been 
at the office very regularly this hot weather. 
There's not much doing at this time of year, 
you know," the clerk added apologetically, 


268 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


“ so he comes down, opens his letters and gen- 
erally goes home about noon, if there is noth- 
ing especial to detain him.” 

“ Can I reach him by telephone anywhere ? ” 

“ He is pretty sure to be at his apartment. 
Shall I get the number for you?” 

Mr. Shoemaker’s man servant answered the 
telephone, said that his master was lying down 
and could not be disturbed. But when he un- 
derstood who wished to speak to him, he 
asked the clerk to wait. In a moment his 
voice was heard asking Mrs. Hartwell-Jones 
where and when she would like to meet Mr. 
Shoemaker, and after a moment’s considera- 
tion, Mrs. Hartwell-Jones asked that he come 
to her hotel that evening as soon after dinner 
as possible. 

Then she returned to her hotel and forced 
herself to lie down for a much-needed rest. 
The clerk’s observation that Mr. Shoemaker 
was not well was strangely disquieting. Had 
Mr. Shoemaker allowed illness — perhaps over- 
strained nerves — to warp his judgment and 
business discretion ? And had she, Mrs. Hart- 
well-Jones, made a mistake in entrusting her 
affairs so entirely to one man, even a man of 


A BUSINESS TRIP 269 

such unquestioned integrity as Mr. Shoemaker 
had always been considered ? 

“ Perhaps a firm of several partners could 
have managed better,” she reflected anxiously. 
44 Then, when one member became incapaci- 
tated by illness or for any other reason, there 
would be others to take up his work. I do 
hope things have not got into a hopeless 
muddle. I do wish Mr. Jack Beckwith were 
at hand. He is the only man I know in 
whom I should care to confide.” 

With these and other troubled reflections 
she fretted herself until evening came. She 
tried seriously to control her irritated nerves, 
to face the impending situation with her 
usual serene common sense, and so success- 
ful were her efforts that when Mr. Shoe- 
maker’s name was announced she was ready 
to bear patiently whatever blow he had to in- 
flict. 

44 At least I shall know,” she said to her- 
self as she descended in the elevator to the 
hotel parlor, “ and that is better than tor- 
menting my mind with fears and uncertain- 
ties.” 

The interview was brief, and confirmed her 


270 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

worst fears. Mr. Shoemaker, undermined by 
ill-health and increasing personal responsibili- 
ties, had made one mistake in judgment after 
another, by each new step hoping to retrieve 
a fault. In a word, Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s in- 
come had been reduced to less than half. 

The lawyer’s feeble distress, his sudden 
attitude of helplessness and despondency, 
aroused her pity to such an extent that she 
could not speak one word of reproach. Nat- 
urally, under the circumstances, she could 
not leave her affairs any longer in his hands, 
and told him so as gently as possible. 

“ It is not that I don’t trust you, Mr. Shoe- 
maker. Surely you understand that? It is 
that you are in such a state of ill-health that 
it would be cruel of any one to impose the 
slightest care upon you at present. You 
ought to give up everything and take a long, 
long rest and vacation.” 

“ I know I ought, dear lady. But to tell 
the truth, I have become so involved myself 
that I cannot afford it. I must hold on a 
little longer.” 

“ Then why not take in a partner to help 
you? That young clerk in your office seems 


A BUSINESS TRIP 271 

a very nice, sensible young man. He could 
be made of great help, I should think.” 

Mr. Shoemaker brightened at this sugges- 
tion. 

“ I’ll think of it,” he said. “ I wonder I 
never thought of it myself. Perhaps you 
would trust him with your affairs?” he 
added wistfully. “ I know he is honest, and 
not inexperienced. A little readjustment, a 
little judicious reinvestment, and everything 
of yours will turn out all right.” 

“ I’ll think that matter over, and talk with 
the young man again,” said Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones. “ At what time would you like me to 
be at your office, Mr. Shoemaker ? ” 

“ I am there by half-past eight, as a rule. 
It is easier to get through the heavy work 
before the intense heat. But take your own 
time, madam. I cannot express the contri- 
tion I feel at bringing you here on this vex- 
atious business.” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones bade him good-night 
with a patient smile, but she told herself that 
to discover the half of one’s income melted 
into thin air was truly a “ vexatious business.” 

Before she went to bed, she wrote a long 


272 LETT T’S GOOD LUCK 

letter to Mr. Jack Beckwith, giving him, as 
exactly as she could, the details of the whole 
situation and asking his advice as to continu- 
ing with Mr. Shoemaker’s clerk. The next 
two days were tedious in the extreme, filled 
with going over columns of figures difficult 
to understand, in a close, stuffy room in one 
of the busiest, noisiest streets in the world. 
But while certain money was lost past re- 
demption, there was still enough left to pro- 
vide all necessities and some luxuries ; and at 
the latest, a few years of prudence would no 
doubt restore her previous comfortable status, 
for the royalties of her books were a steady 
source of revenue. 

So she packed her bag again and took the 
New London train, going over in her mind 
how and when she would tell her two pre- 
cious daughters of their change of fortune and 
resolved to wait until the quiet of Sea Side 
was regained before opening the unhappy 
subject. 


CHAPTER XIX 


HOME AGAIN 

When the selection of rooms came under 
consideration in the hotel, Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones suggested that as Molly and Violet had 
been roommates so far on the journey, that 
they should continue that arrangement and 
let Letty share her room. Which settlement 
suited Letty perfectly. It suited Violet, too, 
for strange as it may seem, she felt a sudden 
shyness with her mother, and dreaded being 
alone with her. She wanted to watch, and 
consider what Molly had said to her that 
afternoon on the fence, after they had visited 
the old Robinson house. 

Of course the very wisest course would have 
been to go directly to her mother, repeat the 
whole conversation, which, after all, was 
innocent enough, and let Mrs. Hartwell- Jones 
make whatever explanation she thought nec- 
essary. But Violet held her own counsel and 
273 


274 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

brooded and speculated until she had turned 
over every trifling incident that connected her 
mother with Mr. Jack Beckwith, until she 
almost believed that an ardent love affair had 
been flourishing under her own unsuspecting 
nose. 

But in spite of this secret feeling of awk- 
wardness, she was very glad to see her mother 
again, and was also keen to take advantage of 
the reunion to satisfy her curiosity regarding 
Letty’s bundle of papers. So she hurried 
through her preparations for dinner, and 
knocked at the door of her mother’s room, 
somewhat farther down the corridor. Enter- 
ing, she curled herself up on the bed in an 
attitude of expectancy and exhorted Letty to 
hurry with her dressing. 

“Why? Are Mr. and Mrs. Emlin ready? 
I thought we weren’t to have dinner until 
seven.” 

“ We aren’t, but we want plenty of time to 
look over the papers.” 

“ Oh, so that is it ! Well, 1 curiosity killed 
a cat,’ ” mocked Letty, leisurely untying her 
shoes. 

“ Of course I’m curious — and no more than 


HOME AGAIN 


2 75 

you are yourself, only you’re trying to tease 
me,” responded Violet coolly. “ Hurry up, 
do.” 

“ We’ve plenty of time. Curb your in- 
quisitiveness, my dear.” 

“ Mother, I leave it to you if I haven’t a 
right to be curious? Here, Letty said she 
wouldn’t open that package until you were 
with us, and now she’s just tantalizing us. 
Make her hurry.” 

“ We aren’t going to open it until we get 
home,” answered Letty before Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones could speak. “Aunt Mary has agreed 
that it’s all right, so we can feel perfectly 
settled down and quiet.” 

“ How silly ! And I think it’s mean to go 
and make plans behind my back, so there ! ” 

“ My dear ! ” her mother gently reproved 
her. “ Surely Letty may do as she likes with 
her own. And you must bear in mind, 
dear,” she added in a low tone as Letty dis- 
appeared into the closet in search of her 
pumps, “ you must bear in mind that there 
are certain papers in the package — all of 
them, possibly — which Letty won’t want any 
one but herself to see at all.” 


276 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

“ I know, but there must be something else, 
or Mr. D ” 

Letty backed out into the room just then, 
and nothing more was said. Violet had to 
curb her impatience for another twenty-four 
hours, and to accomplish that necessity the 
most effectively she put the whole matter out 
of her mind. Letty did not speak of it again, 
either, but she had something else to say, and 
when she and Mrs. Hartwell-Jones were in 
their room alone for the night, she asked if 
they could not have a little confidential talk 
before going to bed. 

“ Oh, my dear, what have you heard ! ” 
cried Mrs. Hartwell-Jones with a little catch 
in her voice. Poor woman, she could not 
keep her own worries out of her mind. 

If Violet had heard this little speech, and 
seen the look of self-consciousness and dis- 
tress that accompanied it, she would, without 
doubt, have attributed it to but one cause. 
But Letty, fortunately not having had her 
suspicions roused by any kind friend, was 
filled with alarm and wonder. 

“Why, dear Aunt Mary, I have heard 
nothing! What do you mean?” she cried. 


HOME AGAIN 


2 77 

“ Oh, do tell me, Aunt Mary. I know some- 
thing is bothering you awfully — has been 
worrying you for months, and I feel sure this 
trip to New York has had something to do 
with it. Won’t you tell me what it is? 
Can’t I help you? ” 

“ My precious sweet, you can help me very 
much, and I am worried, but I don’t want to 
talk about it just yet. When you and Violet 
and I are all together, alone in our dear cottage 
at Sea Side, we shall have a very long, con- 
fidential talk, and I shall seek comfort and 
advice from my two precious daughters. But 
I am very tired just now, and want to rest my 
brain and nerves a little. I feel better to- 
night, just from having you both with me 
again. And to-morrow’s peaceful little jour- 
ney, with home at the end of it, will com- 
pletely cure my little attack of nervous 
fatigue. But now, my darling, what is it 
you wanted to talk about ? ” 

“ It is partly about my visit to Meta, but 
we’ll put that off, for it’s nothing important. 
Indeed, looking back on it all, it seems more 
funny than anything else. But I do want to 
‘ fess up ’ a little thing I did at Narragansett. 


2 78 LETTY'S GOOD LUCK 

Don’t look so frightened,” she added with a 
reassuring laugh. “ It was nothing wrong. 
At least I certainly did not mean to do wrong 
and thought only of doing good. But I did 
not tell Mrs. Emlin, and I won’t be happy 
until you know all about it. 

“ As we told you, I had a headache when 
we got to Narragansett — too much fashionable 
life and food — and just lay down and had a 
nice nap while the rest went off to see historic 
spots. 

“ Well, I had a very good nap and woke up 
feeling lots better. I was sitting at the win- 
dow, looking down at all the people, when I 
saw such a pathetic, half-starved woman down 
there begging, and nobody giving her a penny 
or even looking at her.” 

Then she told the whole little incident of 
the street singing and the miniature fortune 
it had brought to the poor Italian woman. 

“ Was it wrong of me, Aunt Mary ? ” she 
asked, seeing how her mother shivered a little 
and turned pale. 

“ No, no, Letty mine, it was a beautiful 
thing to do, and I am proud of my generous- 
souled, brave little daughter. But I can’t help 


HOME AGAIN 


279 

feeling a little frightened at the thought of 
you out there all alone among that great 
crowd of strange people. What might not 
have happened ! ” 

“ But I think the crowd was a sort of pro- 
tection, and the poor woman was so forlorn. 
Indeed, I did not think of anything but help- 
ing her at the time. When I began to sing, 
and saw how every one stopped and stared, I 
did feel a little queer and lonely. But I had 
begun, and I did not mean to give up.” 

“ You are right, and I am pleased that you 
could invent some other way of helping those 
in misfortune besides the mere giving of 
money. After all, money isn’t so terribly nec- 
essary to happiness, is it, Letty mine ? You 
were happy in those old days with your 
mother, weren’t you ? ” 

“ Oh, so happy, Aunt Mary. And it was 
always such an excitement when Ben came 
home, because then we would have beefsteak 
for supper. The memory of that beefsteak 
has a thousand times better taste than all the 
French cooking we had at Meta’s.” 

“ Exactly, dear. Sometimes I think that 
having everything one wants dulls the mental 


280 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 


faculties and destroys ambition. Certainly it 
demoralizes all keenness of appreciation.” 

“ Which is exactly what I said to Mary 
Beckwith at Meta's — or words to that effect. 
Indeed, I think that is what Miss Terlowe had 
in mind when she advised me to study at a 
big conservatory of music, instead of taking 
private lessons.” 

“ Yes, partly that, but she felt you could do 
better work if you had to strive against com- 
petition, too, Letty. Promise me you won’t 
get discouraged when things go slow or wrong, 
Letty mine. The world is very full of kind- 
ness and love, but it is also abounding in 
* envy, hatred and all uncharitableness.’ But 
if you keep your own ambition steadily be- 
fore you, and ‘ hitch your wagon to a star/ 
you will surely ascend to the heights at last.” 

“ I will try indeed, Aunt Mary. And I am 
going to ask you to give me a smaller allow- 
ance this fall. It will do me good, I know, 
to learn to manage a little.” 

“ Perhaps you will have a little allowance 
of your own before long,” suggested Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones, smiling archly, and touching 
the sealed envelope that lay in Letty’s lap. 


HOME AGAIN 


281 


Although Letty was placidly willing to 
wait for the opening of her package, she liked 
to have it close to her, and found a soothing 
comfort in knowing what dearly cherished 
handwriting was enclosed. She answered 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s speech with a slow 
shake of the head. 

“ I really don’t think so, Aunt Mary. I 
kept that idea in my head all the time Mr. 
Drake was telling how the papers had got 
lost, and I could not connect a single word he 
said with any such supposition. No, dear 
Aunt Mary, I must make my own fortune, 
and I am glad it is so. And now that my 
conscience is free, we must go to bed, or you 
won’t get any benefit from this quiet little 
holiday.” And she jumped up briskly from 
her stool. 

For the first night in weeks, Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones slept peacefully. It was really true, 
she told herself, that money was not entirely 
essential to happiness. She and her precious 
daughters had health and contented spirits ; 
and all three had each other. 

The journey home was as quiet and peaceful 
as all could ask, except for one jarring little 


282 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 


interruption. It was a golden, sparkling 
morning, hot, perhaps, but the air relieved by 
a stiff breeze from the sea that swept up the 
Sound and turned the limpid water into a 
myriad faceted sapphire. The car had to 
stand forward, near the smell and jar of the 
engines, so Mr. Emlin found seats for his 
guests in the stern, where they sat in a cozy, 
contented group, under their sun umbrellas, 
and watched the people about them with 
interested eyes. 

Suddenly Letty was roused by a familiar 
voice exclaiming : 

“ Well, if here isn’t my charming little 
fellow guest again. What a delightful coin- 
cidence. Are we bound for the same house 
party again ? ” and Letty looked up to see 
Grace Howard, more elaborately dressed than 
ever, standing before her. 

It so happened that Grace was crossing with 
a party of ultra-fashionable friends. She had 
caught sight of Letty on first coming aboard, 
and had avoided recognition, for the motorists 
were looking very insignificant in their plain 
traveling costumes. But she was electrified 
to hear one of her friends suddenly nudge an- 


HOME AGAIN 


283 

other and ejaculate in an excited whisper : 
“ Isn’t that Mrs. Hartwell- Jones, the celebrated 
author, sitting over there? I am sure it is. 
Oh, isn’t she beautiful and distinguished 
looking ? ” 

As familiarity breeds contempt, so does old 
acquaintance efface greatness, and Grace had 
actually forgotten Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s right 
to fame. She saw in a flash that it would 
redound greatly to her credit to claim the 
acquaintanceship. She looked in the direction 
the speaker had pointed and said, in a well- 
feigned tone of surprise : 

“ Why, so it is ! I must go over and speak 
to them.” 

“ Oh, do you know Mrs. Hartwell-Jones ? ” 

“ To be sure I do — very well. Little Letty, 
the adopted daughter, you know, who confuses 
us all by calling her adopted mother 4 Aunt 
Mary,’ is one of my oldest friends.” And 
Grace airily crossed the deck and bent gra- 
ciously over Letty’s chair. 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones and Mrs. Emlin were 
next addressed and presently Grace asked per- 
mission to introduce her friends, and Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones had to submit politely to a 


284 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

period of bald adulation and pointless con- 
versation. 

“ How nice and wobbly it's getting/’observed 
Letty presently, with great cheerfulness of 
manner. 

She had observed that Grace’s face had gone 
white around the lips, and that her friends 
were exchanging uneasy glances. 

“ Oh, don’t say that,” exclaimed Grace try- 
ing to smile, but shuddering instead. “ I 
thought the Sound was always as calm and 
smooth as a river.” 

“ Oh, dear, no,” Letty assured her. “ It is 
really very good to-day, compared to some- 
times. It is always bad in the Rip, and we’re 
coming to that now. What is it, Grace ; don’t 
you feel well ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, quite well, thank you. A little 
headache from the sun, but nothing more. 
Girls,” she added to her companions, “ I think 
I shall go and see where they put my bag. 
We get off at Shelter Island, and there may 
be a scramble.” 

“ We’ll go, too,” agreed her companions 
hastily. “ Good-bye, dear Mrs. Hartwell-Jones. 
May we come to call on you some time in 


HOME AGAIN 285 

New York? My little sister just adores your 
books.” 

“ So does my cousin,” echoed her friend. 
“ Why even I, at my age, have read them, and 
loved them.” 

“ That's very condescending of you, I am 
sure,” replied Mrs. Hartwell-Jones dryly, and 
responded beamingly to the wry smiles of 
farewell. 

“ Saved again ! ” breathed Letty thankfully, 
as soon as the trio had made a staggering, 
hasty exit down thecompanion stairs. “ There, 
Aunt Mary, I had to stand that for three 
whole days at Meta's. 1 Charming little fellow 
guest,' indeed ! In two or three years I'll be 
as old as she, if not her senior. Silly thing ! 
As if any one would be deceived by her airs 
and affectations.” 

“ Never mind, Letty mine. It takes all 
sorts of people to make a world, you know, 
and we must not judge. Grace is passing 
through an unfortunate phase. There is no 
doubt much good behind those silly man- 
ners.” 

“ There you go, always looking for the best 
in people,” sighed Letty. 


286 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 


“ Aside from the Christianity of it, it is my 
business, dear,” smiled Mrs. Hartwell-Jones 
gently. “ I could never write successful 
stories without that point of view.” 

Just then Violet and Molly, who had been 
making a tour of the boat, came up laughing 
to report Grace and her friends succumbed to 
one of the most unromantic ailments in the 
pharmacopoeia, and lying limp and helpless 
on the saloon lounges. 

“ Wouldn’t it be heaping coals of fire on 
their heads to go down and offer to relieve 
their misery?” suggested Letty with mischief 
in her eye. 

“ I think the consciousness that you were a 
witness to their downfall would scarcely be 
* coals of fire,’ Letty dear,” replied her mother 
quietly. “ Let us forget ” 

“ And forgive ” added Letty with a 

roguish smile. 

The pleasant little journey was* too soon 
over, the short motor run from Sag Harbor 
accomplished comfortably and soon “ the lights 
of home ” were at hand. 

“ Or would be, if it were night,” added 
Letty. 


HOME AGAIN 287 

“ One light will be gone,” sighed Violet 
sentimentally. “ Miss Terlowe.” 

“ And bless me, we forgot all about Mary 
and her college boys l ” ejaculated Molly Wil- 
son. “ She’s probably perched on your door- 
step, girls, with a delegation.” 

The girls fell to chattering eagerly of the 
possible good times in store for them, and Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones smiled and sighed as she pic- 
tured that “ long, quiet, confidential evening ” 
with her two daughters receding into the 
background. 

“ You will all stop for lunch with me?” 
she asked Mrs. Emlin as the car rolled into 
Sea Side village. “ I had planned to ask you, 
and everything is arranged.” 

But Mr. Emlin preferred to go directly 
home and rest after his trip, so they dropped 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones and the girls at their 
door and went on. Madame Henri had in- 
vited herself for luncheon and was standing 
in the doorway, waiting to welcome the re- 
turned travelers. She had persuaded Bridget 
to let her make the salad with her own hands 
and had decorated the table with fresh flowers 
from Mrs. Preston’s garden. Mary was not 


288 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 


present in person, but there was a long note 
from her detailing the week’s programme, 
emphasizing the fact that the girls were in- 
cluded in every item and that her friends, 
like British soldiers, were expected to do their 
duty. 

“ Oh, how nice it is to be home again ! ” 
sighed Letty, as they gathered around the 
table after laughing over Mary’s letter. 
“ Hello, Katy, you aren’t daring to give us 
junket to-day, are you? Madame Henri, you 
look as if you had good news to tell. Or are 
you just flattering us with delight at seeing 
us home again ? Oh, everything is so genu- 
ine, somehow, and I am hungry as a bear. 
Aren’t you, girls ? ” 


CHAPTER XX 


GOOD LUCK AND BAD 

Mrs. Hart well- Jones was right about the 
postponement of their quiet evening. When 
Letty and Violet hurried off after luncheon, 
they expressed the positive intention of mak- 
ing no engagement for the evening, but Mary’s 
pleas were so urgent, and Mrs. Hartwell- Jones 
so compliant, that the result was a rush home 
to change their frocks and smooth ruffled hair, 
and hurry back for dinner and a dance. 

“ You are quite sure you don’t mind our 
putting off the opening of the bundle, Aunt 
Mary?” asked Letty breathlessly, running 
into Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s room. 

“ My dear child, it is you who should do 
the minding; the papers are yours. But if 
you ask my opinion I think you are much 
wiser to wait until all the hurry and bustle 
of this exciting week is over before you try to 
settle down to so serious a task.” 

289 


290 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

“ Bat that other confidential talk — some- 
thing you were going to tell Violet and me?” 

“ Ah, that will wait, too, dear child. In- 
deed, I do not mind putting it off a little, and 
I may have time to receive an answer to a 
letter I wrote from New York bearing on the 
affair. Now, let me see if your sash is straight, 
and then run along.” 

“ You must not call it a sash nowadays, 
Aunt Mary. It is a girdle. I quite horrified 
Meta by asking if my sash were in the middle 
of the back. She made me twist it around, 
this way, tied with one long end flopping over 
the other, so, and said it was ‘ quite the latest/ 
Here comes Violet-Mary to be hooked up. I’m 
going to put her in the fashion, too. You are 
sure you don’t mind being left, dear Aunt 
Mary ? Mrs. Somers said you must be sure to 
come over afterward to watch the dancing. 
There, Violet-Mary, don’t you feel like a - new 
woman ’ ? You see your big sister has learned 
a thing or two from her journey out into the 
world. Oh, dear, where did I put my pocket 
handkerchief? ” 

After the girls had gone, Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones settled down to her desk and began a 


GOOD LUCK AND BAD 291 

letter to Mr. Shoemaker. Then she realized 
that she had nothing to say at present. She 
was waiting now for an answer to the letter 
she had written Mr. Jack Beckwith, and she' 
felt that she could do nothing more until 
she heard from him. It was a great tempta- 
tion to confide in Mr. Beckwith, senior, but 
she felt that it would be hardly fair to worry 
him. 

“He must have a good deal on his mind 
just now, with Mr. Jack away. I will wait, 
as patiently as I can, until Mr. Jack’s letter 
comes, and do as he bids. He may authorize 
me to put my affairs into his father’s hands. 
I wish he would. I should feel so much bet- 
ter satisfied. But whatever Mr. Jack may say 
or do, I am quite sure he cannot restore to me 
that which is already lost. Mr. Shoemaker 
satisfied me pretty well on that head. And I 
think it high time my friends should begin 
to understand my change of circumstances. 

“ Fortunately the lease on our house is up 
this fall. I must write at once that I do not 
wish to renew it. Mr. Shoemaker’s clerk can 
attend to that much for me, at any rate. Ah, 
our dear little house I How happy we were in 


292 LE TTY'S GOOD LUCK 

it. But there is no use in crying over spilt 
milk. We must live somewhere, of course, 
and I hate to think of going back to apartment 
life. Perhaps the houses up near the River- 
side Drive have lower rents. I’ll ask that 
young man to look up a list for me. 

“ How I should love to talk it all over with 
Ellen Somers ! But she is quite too occupied 
just now. And there will be plenty of talk- 
ing over, of all sorts, later on. But I know 
what I can do ; write to Dr. Hey wood. He 
knows all about the different districts and can 
give me a great deal of practical advice, both 
as to price and healthy location.” 

She turned to her desk and wrote the two 
letters at once. She had barely finished them ; 
was, indeed, in the act of addressing Dr. Hey- 
wood’s, when Madame Henri walked in. She, 
too, had been invited up to the Beckwith house 
to watch the young people dance, and had 
stopped in for Mrs. Hartwell-Jones. 

“ But how would you like to pause for a few 
moments here before we go ? ” she suggested. 
“ I should so like to talk to you for a little.” 

“Then Letty was right when she said you 
looked as if you had good news to tell I ” ex- 


GOOD LUCK AND BAD 293 

claimed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones quickly. “ Come 
out on to the veranda and tell it to me, dear 
Madame. I feel as if I wanted to hear all the 
good news I can.” 

“ Ah ! I have feared me this good while 
you have had things on your mind,” replied 
Madame Henri. “ Perhaps we shall exchange 
confidences, is it not?” 

“ I am aching to tell my troubles to some 
one. But I must have your good news 
first.” 

“ I know not whether to call it good or bad, 
ma chere Madame . It is this. A cousin has 
died at home in France, and has left me her 
fortune. It is not a large fortune, but it will 
be welcome ; and I cannot mourn deeply, for 
I knew my cousin so little. It happened that 
I was next of kin ; voild. But it means that 
I am to go back to France, as soon as is possi- 
ble to arrange, to attend in person upon the 
inheritance.” 

“ But surely that makes you happy ? To go 
back to your own country ? ” 

“ Ah, of that I am not so sure. My friends 
are scattered or gone — it will be a melancholy 
visit. And then, you know, as one grows 


294 LETTY'S GOOD LUCK 

older, one becomes more and more the pussy- 
cat, attached to the place in which one is. It 
will be somewhat lonely, that visit. I was 
wishing ” 

“ That you had some one to go with you ? ” 
Mrs. Hartwell-Jones asked, as she paused, and 
her heart sank, for she guessed what was to 
follow. 

“ Exactly. I was wondering — it sounds 
very selfish, but I did think that if you could 
spare Letty for the winter — I would arrange 
that she have some lessons of Monsieur Blanc,” 
she added artfully. 

“ Oh, dear, dear Madame, I wish I could 
say yes. It would be a wonderful experience 
for Letty, but I cannot let her go this winter, 
for many reasons. ” 

Madame sighed patiently. 

“ I was afraid you would say that. It 
seemed quite too good to be true. Ah, well, I 
shall not coax, Madame. But if ” 

“ My chief reason for saying no,” Mrs. 
Hartwell-Jones hurried on, “ is that I could 
not afford ” 

“ Ah, but she is to be my guest.” 

“ No, no. I could not accept so much, even 


GOOD LUCK AND BAD 295 

for my precious Letty, dear, generous friend. 
But I must explain. I have lost a good deal 
of money — a great deal, in fact.” 

“ Ah, that is it? I knew something was 
amiss. It is much, you say ? ” 

“ Fully half my income, I am afraid. But 
it is not such a serious thing, now that I know 
the worst. It was the nagging fear of what was 
impending that has frightened me all sum- 
mer. Now I have only to tell my two precious 
daughters, and we shall begin over again. It 
is not going to be very hard.” 

“ You are brave, Madame. But if I had 
dear Letty with me, it would make only two 
of you to recommencer f ” 

‘‘Ah, do not tempt me, Madame. Let me 
be frank and say that I really do not believe 
it would be good for Letty. The time has 
come when she must settle down to hard, 
steady work, and this change of fortune will 
be good for her, I believe and hope.” 

“ Since you put it so, dear Madame, I admit 
that I agree with you. I fear me I was quite 
selfish in my wish to have Letty with me.” 

“ But it will be lonely for you. Is there no 
one else you could ask ? How about Molly 


296 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

Wilson? She’s a nice child and thoroughly 
good company.” 

“ I will think of it. For the present, we 
shall say nothing to any one of our little 
confidences, is it not so ? ” 

“ Yes ; I am not quite ready to tell the 
world. And now I suppose we would better 
go or Mrs. Somers will think we have for- 
gotten.” 

And so the week passed, full of rush and 
gayety. Mrs. Hartwell- Jones hardly saw her 
daughters from morning until evening, and 
had no chance to mark the new shyness and 
awkwardness with which Violet regarded her, 
nor the absent-mindedness on Letty’s part. 
At last, however, the gay week was ended, 
Max Beckwith’s friends went on to other 
visits, and Sea Side settled down to its normal 
peace and leisure. 

“ Now,” exclaimed Letty eagerly, as she 
and Violet returned from the station one 
afternoon in late August, “ it is over, and we 
can settle down to a peaceful life once more. 
How very much there is to talk about, Aunt 
Mary. Have we left you too much alone 
these days? ” 


GOOD LUCK AND BAD 297 

“ No, dear, I have enjoyed seeing you both 
so happy. And I have been very busy, my- 
self." 

“ Well, now perhaps we’ll have time to 
open your mysterious bundle, Letty," added 
Violet. “ I don’t believe there’s anything 
in it but old letters anyway,’’ she added 
peevishly. Violet was apt to grow a little 
cross when she was tired. 

“ Poor Violet-Mary’s done out, and I don’t 
wonder,’’ laughed Letty. “And you don’t 
look any too lively yourself, dear Aunt 
Mary. Is it one of your headaches ? " 

“ No, childie, thank you. Just tired." 

“ Then why can’t Katy give us a high 
tea instead of dinner, and we can have 
our cozy pow-wow and get early to bed,’’ 
suggested Letty. “ Shall I tell her and 
Biddy?" 

“ And let’s make it a wrapper party, in 
mother’s room," added Violet. 

And so, a little later, the three gathered in 
a cozy, comfortable group in Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones’s bedroom, with all the windows open 
wide to the sweet sea breeze, and the gas 
lowered to lessen the heat. There was just 


298 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

enough light for Letty, sitting underneath the 
desk lamp, to see her letters. Violet, instead 
of perching on a stool at her mother’s feet, 
made her fatigue an excuse to curl up on 
the bed, and the two, mother and daughter, 
watched Letty silently as she opened the long 
envelope. 

A solemn hush fell over the little party as 
Letty broke the seal and took up the first of 
the precious letters. Letty began to read to 
herself, drying the tears that fell now and 
then, and Mrs. Hartwell-Jones watched her 
tenderly, silently. Violet watched her 
mother, and a vague resentment grew in 
her glance. She felt irritated and hostile. 
Why had Molly put that horrid idea into her 
head ? And why had she not gone to her 
mother about it at once? Each passing day 
made her suspicion keener and the possibil- 
ity of asking for the truth more difficult. 
She grew restless and oppressed by the silence 
and tossed restlessly. 

Letty looked up quickly, smiling at them 
through her tears. 

“ They are my mother’s letters,” she said 
softly. “ And she says such lovely things. 



“i WONDER WHAT THIS IS?” 












GOOD LUCK AND BAD 299 

May I read you bits here and there? And 
afterward, dear Aunt Mary, I should like you 
to read them all to yourself, if you don't 
mind." 

And so she read to them, in the softness 
of the summer night, extracts from the dear 
old letters, and it was not until she was gath- 
ering up the scattered contents of the big en- 
velope that she came across a larger business- 
looking letter, addressed in typewriting to 
her brother Ben. 

“ Why, I wonder what this is," she ex- 
claimed, holding up the envelope. 

Mrs. Hartwell- Jones gave a little gasp and 
sat erect. She had for the moment forgotten 
her speculations about Letty's package. 

“ Open it, my dear, and see," she said 
quietly. 

Letty obeyed, and several long, narrow en- 
graved papers fell out. 

“What are they, Aunt Mary? Can you 
make them out?" she asked, and carried the 
package across to Mrs. Hartwell-Jones. 

Violet got off the bed and joined her. 
Then there was a mystery, after all ; some- 
thing more than just old letters, at any rate. 


3 oo LE TTY'S GOOD LUCK 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones examined the papers 
carefully. 

“ They are certificates of stock, Letty mine,” 
she said quietly. “ But whether they are of 
any value or not, I cannot tell you. We 
will take them up to Mr. Beckwith in the 
morning.” 

Letty and Violet were filled with excite- 
ment and fell to discussing the wonderful 
possibilities the slips of paper might hold. 

“ Bless your dear hearts, any one would 
think you had discovered a gold mine,” 
laughed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones at length. 
“ And if money appears such a wonderful, 
powerful thing, my girlies, I am afraid you 
are in no mood to hear my piece of news to- 
night.” 

“ Oh, but we are, we are,” clamored the 
girls, and Letty drew up her customary stool. 

But Violet hung back. She was suddenly 
afraid of what her mother was to tell them, 
and seated herself in the shadow where her 
face was hidden. But Mrs. Hartwell-Jones 
would not allow that, and pulled her daughter 
down to the second stool at her feet. 

“ I shall need the help of both my daughters 


GOOD LUCK AND BAD 301 

for what I am about to say,” she said gravely, 
“ for it is the opposite of good luck, like Letty’s 
find.” 

Violet looked up, startled by her mother’s 
words. This was different news from that 
she had expected to hear. However her 
mother might classify that other, she cer- 
tainly would not call it bad luck. 

“ It is just this, dears,” Mrs. Hartwell-Jones 
resumed briefly. “ In some way a great deal 
of my money has been lost, and we shall have 
to live very simply for a year or two, at least ; 
possibly longer. I cannot tell the extent of 
the loss yet, and I cannot — must not blame 
Mr. Shoemaker. He has been ill and over- 
worked. It is my fault, primarily, in laying 
the whole burden of my affairs on his shoul- 
ders alone. 

“ However it came about, the result is the 
same. We are going to be quite poor for a 
long time to come. I am arranging all my 
affairs on a different basis. And to-day a 
letter has come from Mr. Jack” — Mrs. Hart- 
well-Jones fancied she felt Violet’s shoulder 
stiffen suddenly under her touch — “ from 
Mr. Jack that advises me to put everything 


302 LETT T'S GOOD LUCK 

into his father’s hands until he can get back 
from the West and take hold himself. So 
you see we have plenty of dear, kind friends 
to help us out, children. And we won’t mind 
so very much, will we ? ” 

“ If Mr. Jack is in it, everything will be all 
right in the end,” said Violet, but she spoke 
stiffly, coldly. 

“ How long have you known about this, 
Aunt Mary?” asked Letty, looking up. 

“Almost all summer, Letty mine. That 
is, I have been afraid it was coming.” 

“ And you never told us a word about it. 
Perhaps something could have been saved if 
you had told some one — say Mr. Jack, before 
he went away ? ” 

“ I don’t know. Anyhow it is too late to 
think of that now. But it isn’t so terribly 
bad, dears. Not as if we had lost everything, 
you know. I am going to send you both to 
bed now, and to-morrow we’ll talk over all 
the practical details of it.” 

Letty rose obediently and kissed her mother 
tenderly. 

“ Do you know, I believe I am rather glad 
of it, Aunt Mary. It gives me an excited, 


GOOD LUCK AND BAD 303 

tingley feeling inside, as if I wanted to fight 
— and win.” 

“ That is the right spirit. But all the same, 
don’t lose sight of your own possible short-cut 
to fortune,” she laughed, picking up the stock 
certificates that had fallen out of Letty’s lap. 
“ We must at least make sure of their value.” 

Letty took the papers, thanked her mother 
and kissed her again. 

“ You are sure you won’t lie awake and 
worry, ■ if we leave you ? ” she asked with a 
sudden pricking of the conscience as the rec- 
ollection flashed across her of all the days 
and evenings they had left her alone. 

“ No, no. I sleep very well o’ nights, now 
that I know the worst. Violet, darling, wait 
a moment, will you, please ? ” she added, as 
Violet kissed her silently and was leaving the 
room without a word. 

Letty slipped away alone, to read over her 
precious letters again and to speculate upon 
what change of fortune this new trouble was 
to bring upon them. But she did not speculate 
very long, for busy days and late hours spread 
their consequences over her tired body, and 
she soon fell into a healthy, dreamless sleep. 


304 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

“ What is it, Violet ? ” asked her mother 
gently, as soon as Letty had left them alone 
together. 

“ Nothing, mother, nothing at all. I’m 
tired. Of course I’m awfully sorry for you — 
for all of us — but it isn’t going to last very 
long; only until Mr. Jack Beckwith gets back,” 
she added a little sullenly. She thought 
that Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s mention of Mr. 
Jack’s timely aid was a sort of paving the way 
for telling her other bit of news, and Violet 
resented being treated in a roundabout, child- 
ish fashion. 

“ Why can’t she come straight out with it ? ” 
she asked herself furiously. “ I hope she isn’t 
ashamed.” 

“ Tell me what it is, darling,” her mother 
coaxed again. “ I know there is something. 
Why is it you change expression and get all 
sort of cold and distant when I mention — Mr. 
Jack Beckwith ? ” 

And as she put the very question into words, 
a cold thrill of dread passed across Mrs. Hart- 
well-Jones’s heart. Could it be that her little 
girl had developed a woman’s heart too soon, 
and that it had been touched ? That she had 


GOOD LUCK AND BAD 305 

misunderstood Mr. Jack’s brotherly thought- 
fulness and tendernesses? But no, the idea was 
too absurd. Yet something there surely was. 

She drew Violet back to the stool, and sitting 
down in her chair, stroked the silky brown 
hair, so vividly colored and like her own, and 
waited. 

“ Out with it, little girl,” she said at length, 
with an attempt at playfulness. “ Surely 
you are not finding it hard to tell your old 
mother things? I thought we were always 
going to tell each other everything. Letty 
has read her letters to us, I have told my 
troubles, and now it is your turn.” 

“ Well, mother dear, it isn’t anything — 
nothing much — just something Molly Wilson 
told me, and she only thought it,” stam- 
mered Violet, growing very red and embar- 
rassed. “ It is all foolish — and — I’m afraid 
you’ll laugh — and yet it may be true.” 

“ Dear me, what can it be?” queried her 
mother in mock terror, but folding her lips 
tightly together. With what outlandish ideas 
had Molly been filling her precious child’s 
head ? She had surely thought Molly was to 
be trusted. 


3 o6 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

“ Well, it’s just this,” Violet blurted out 
clumsily. “ Molly said she believed you — 
you were going to marry Mr. Jack Beckwith. 
There ! ” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones sat for a few seconds 
in petrified silence, trying to take in the full 
significance of Violet’s unexpected words. 
Then she burst forth into a hearty peal of 
laughter, so honest and full of genuine mirth 
that Violet could not doubt its reality. 

“ There, I knew Molly was mistaken ! ” she 
ejaculated. “ Oh, mother, why didn’t I come 
to you at once? ” 

“ Why not, indeed ? When did this extra- 
ordinary communication take place?” 

“ The day we went to see the old Robinson 
house, from Narragansett. We were sitting 
on the fence talking while the tire was being 
changed. 

“ And who all are ‘we’?” 

“ Oh, just Molly and me.” 

“ And you have said nothing to any one 
else?” 

“ No, mother, of course not, not to a soul ; 
not even to Letty.” 

“And Molly?” 


GOOD LUCK AND BAD 307 

“ I don't think she has, either — unless to 
her Aunt Isabel." 

“ Did she say anything to lead you to sup- 
pose that she had discussed the matter with 
her Aunt Isabel ? " 

“ She only said that she believed her Aunt 
Isabel thought — thought it, too." 

“ Then I shall have to see Mrs. Emlin," 
sighed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones with a frown. It 
was an embarrassing topic. “ Oh, daughter, 
daughter, if you children only realized the 
harm that can be done by that thoughtless, 
unintelligent jumping to conclusions, and 
then hastening to impart those wrong con- 
clusions as facts ! " 

“ Why, mother, you’re rather hard on us. 
We only " 

“ Yes, yes, I understand. And fortunately 
this time very little harm, if any, has been 
done. But mind you never mention the sub- 
ject again, darling, and I want you to promise 
me something ; that you will always come to 
me at once with any sort of ‘ I told you ’ or 
* Have you heard this ? ’ " 

“ Yes, mother dear, I always have before, 
and I always will again. I’ve been pretty 


3 o8 LETTT'S GOOD LUCK 

miserable now, to keep this away from you 
so long,” and Violet broke down and wept. 

“ There, there, now, it’s all right,” said her 
mother cheerily, when the shower was over. 
“ Run away to bed, for we've serious matters 
of business to talk over to-morrow. Good- 
night, my precious child. Oh, dear, oh, dear, 
I must laugh again I ” 


CHAPTER XXI 


CONCLUSION 

It took the girls several days to realize the 
seriousness of their change of fortune. But 
when they heard their mother tell Mrs. 
Somers that she had written to give up the 
New York house, they began to understand 
that a complete change must take place. Mr. 
Beckwith had already gone into matters with 
Mr. Shoemaker, so that end of the burden 
was lifted from Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s shoul- 
ders, and the domestic side of the situation 
became her part to solve. 

“ I'll go up to New York with you for a 
day or two and go house-hunting,” volun- 
teered Mrs. Somers. “ I think it will be 
rather a lark.” 

“ I’m afraid it can’t be a house, unless I go 
up into the western part, near the Riverside 
Drive, and I don’t even know, positively, 
whether rents are any lower. I shan’t mind 
309 


3 1 o LET XT'S GOOD LUCK 

an apartment so much, now that I have my 
girls with me. It was when I was living 
alone that it seemed a mere hotel existence.” 

“ But there must be cunning little houses 
to be had without going too far away from 
the rest of us. We’ll have a good look, any- 
how.” 

“ I don’t understand why I have not had 
any answer to my letter to Dr. Heywood. 
He is back from his holiday, I know.” 

“ Oh, I know why. He was sent for to go 
to Bar Harbor. One of his patients was taken 
ill up there and nothing would do but for 
him to go, post haste, and take care of her. 
By the time your letter is forwarded and his 
answer comes back you will hear. What is it 
you want to know?” 

“ I asked him about districts in New York. 
I thought he could give me a hint as to what 
was a possible part — from the point of view of 
health, as well as reasonably cheap.” 

When Dr. Heywood’s letter did come, at 
length, it brought a very practical suggestion. 

“ Why not take the little cottage in Lake- 
wood again ? ” he wrote. “ It agreed with Vio- 
let so wonderfully last year, and unless it is im- 


CONCLUSION 


3 1 1 

perative, I would rather not put her through 
another New York winter. I daresay there is 
a good enough school at Lakewood, and if 
Letty’s education is so precious to her, let her 
board with Miss Sims.” Mrs. Hartwell-Jones 
laughed over this part of the letter, which she 
was reading aloud to Mrs. Somers. 

“ Dr. Hey wood is such a droll mixture,” 
she said. “ He is so very up to date and 
modern in his profession, and yet holds such 
old-fashioned ideas about women. He doesn’t 
think education of any real importance to a 
girl.” 

“ Not alongside of her health, I think he 
means. He considers health the very foremost 
consideration, and can you blame him, when 
you think how many nervous wrecks there 
are among the American women of to-day ? ” 

“ I rather like his suggestion of the Lake- 
wood cottage,” admitted Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, 
“ if it were not for Letty. How can I let her 
be away from me again, after last spring’s ex- 
perience? ” 

“ But, my dear Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, that 
would have been just as likely to happen 
if you had been at home. You must not 


312 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

attribute her illness to her being away from 
you.” 

“ No, no, I don’t mean that ; but I mean 
the constant sense of uncertainty as to how 
she is.” 

“ You might suggest to Mademoiselle to 
take Letty again,” suggested Mrs. Somers. 
“ She and Letty were very happy together, 
and I think it would restore Mademoiselle’s 
faith in herself if you were willing to make 
such an arrangement. She has felt so badly 
about Letty’s illness and as if she were to 
blame in some way.” 

“ Oh, I could not bear her to have any such 
feeling ! I’ll talk the matter over w T ith Letty. 
Perhaps she would prefer to stay in Lake- 
wood, too, and get what schooling she could 
there for a season. But — in case we should 
decide on Lakewood and she wants to be near 
her school and music — I’ll ask her how she 
would like to go back to Mademoiselle.” 

When Madame Henri heard of this talked- 
of arrangement, she sighed profoundly. 

“ Alas, that I am to be gone for so many 
months,” she exclaimed. “It would be a 
happiness unspeakable to me to have Letty 


CONCLUSION 


3 l 3 

with me in my little house, to which I am so 
attach, and which I must close up and leave 
to moth and mice for so many month. Ah, 
Madame, Madame, if you could but let her 
come with me ! ” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones knew that this proposi- 
tion was impracticable, but it was a great com- 
fort to her to reflect upon all the offers that 
came to her of taking Letty. 

“ If we should go to Lakewood and leave 
Letty at her work in the city, the dear child 
won’t feel neglected and unconsidered, that is 
one comfort.” 

In the meantime, Mr. Beckwith, while very 
busy with Mrs. Hartwell- Jones’s own affairs, 
still had time to investigate the worth of the 
shares of stock which had been found among 
Letty’s letters. He generally went up to New 
York for the week, coming down on Friday 
afternoon for the week-end, and returning 
Monday morning. When Mr. Jack had been 
at home, he had made a point of coming 
down to Sea Side in the middle of the week 
as well, but his father found that journey too 
tedious. Therefore, when Mrs. Hartwell- 
Jones received a very particularly worded in- 


3 14 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

vitation for herself and the two girls to dine 
at the “ Rubber Band ” on the following Fri- 
day evening, to talk over certain matters with 
Mr. Beckwith, she felt confident that he had 
some information to impart concerning Letty ’s 
papers. 

“ He has found out that they are worthless, 
and does not want to tell me so in writing,” 
she reflected nervously. “ He thinks it will 
sound gentler when spoken.” 

And yet she was not entirely hopeless. 

Mr. Beckwith very evidently had something 
on his mind, and was very abstracted all 
through dinner. But Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, 
watching him, did not think him depressed, 
as if he had bad news to impart, and once she 
caught him glancing at Letty with a twinkle 
in his eye that set her heart to pounding. To 
her surprise, Letty answered the look with a 
nod and smile. Had these two come to a pri- 
vate understanding already ? 

When what he considered a suitable amount 
of ice-cream and cake had been consumed, Mr. 
Beckwith cleared his throat and said, with 
mock pomposity of manner : 

“ I am authorized, by a certain young lady 


CONCLUSION 


3*5 

in our midst, to invite the party here assem- 
bled to attend a — ah — business conclave on 
the terrace. In short, you are all invited to 
hear a bit of news I have to impart — good 
news, madam/' he added, bowing to Mrs. Hart- 
well-Jones and setting her last fear at rest. 

They adjourned forthwith and Mr. Beck- 
with, stirring his coffee, opened the meeting 
in the following informal manner : 

44 My dear Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, those pre- 
cious papers, that were lying serenely and se- 
curely at rest in your friend the circus mana- 
ger’s safety deposit vault, have created a goodly 
sensation in their time. They have been ad- 
vertised from one end of the country to the 
other — almost had a private detective on their 
track. 

14 They are stocks in one of those mining 
concerns which are generally formed, I am 
sorry to say, for the purpose of making money 
for the promoters. As the law requires them 
to have a mine — real or apparent— to show to 
clients, they buy up cheap any old property 
that may be on the market. 

44 It sometimes happens that these old mines 
turn out to be real, and it was so, I am glad 


3 1 6 LE TTY'S GOOD LUCK 

to inform you, in this case. The company 
went through the usual form of bankruptcy, 
but one of the stockholders was a mining en- 
gineer, and he took enough interest to investi- 
gate the property. He saw enough good to 
have faith in the working of it, and went to 
work to buy up a controlling interest. 

“ It happened that these very shares would 
have thrown the scale in his favor, and nat- 
urally he was very anxious to obtain them. 
In fact the whole affair nearly fell through, 
for he believed the other side had these shares 
concealed, to spring upon him at a crucial mo- 
ment. But he learned enough about the 
shares at length to convince him that they 
were really lost, so he carried through his 
scheme — fortunately for Letty here, for, I am 
glad to say, as possessor of these shares of 
stock she will control quite a nice little income 
from now on. And if I can make the com- 
pany pay over past dividends, she will be quite 
an heiress.” 

Mr. Beckwith stopped speaking amidst a 
deafening clamor of applause and excited ex- 
clamations, and Letty was caught and hugged 
and kissed by every one. She took her tri- 


CONCLUSION 


3 l 7 

umph so quietly that Mrs. Hartwell-Jones's 
suspicions that she already knew what was to 
happen were confirmed. But she said noth- 
ing until they were at home again, in the 
privacy of their own cottage — the dear little 
cottage that had sheltered them so happily, 
and which might prove the last united home 
they might have for some time to come. 

“ Letty, darling, what puzzles me about 
this whole delightful affair is when Mr. 
Beckwith got a chance to tell you all about 
it.” 

Letty laughed. 

“ Wasn’t it dear and thoughtful of him ? ” 
she exclaimed. “ You remember when I went 
down to the village store this afternoon to 
match those hair ribbons? Well, that was a 
prearranged plan. Mr. Beckwith met me 
there, escorted me to Northup’s, and under 
cover of a treat, gave me the great news. I’ve 
been just splitting with it ever since, but I 
kept the secret, didn't I ? ” 

“ Indeed you did ; we never suspected a 
thing, did we, Violet, dear?” 

“ Whatever are you going to do with so 
much money, Letty ? ” asked Violet, regarding 


3 i8 LETTT’S GOOD LUCK 

her sister with a comical sort of awe. “ Please 
don’t get stylish and grand.” 

“ Indeed I won’t — not after what I saw and 
learned at Meta’s. Mr. Beckwith says he isn’t 
sure just how much money there will be yet, 
you know, but let’s talk about what I’d like 
to do with it. Aunt Mary, are you sleepy ? ” 
They sat up talking until very late, and 
Letty poured out such an extravaganza of 
luxuries, charitable endowments and ex- 
penditures generally that she would like to 
make with the new windfall that Mrs. Hart- 
well-Jones exclaimed : 

“ Letty mine, if you would use that output 
of imagination to write a story, you would 
make an instant success. The wealth of 
Croesus could hardly finance your mad 
schemes. Shall we say good-night now ? ” 

“ Oh, but mother, it all sounds so delight- 
fully comfortable — and so Arabian Nights-y,” 
said Violet, rising and yawning prodigiously. 
“ And one part is coming true, anyhow.” 

“ Yes, Aunt Mary, Mr. Beckwith says there 
will surely be enough to pay the rent of the 
Lakewood cottage, and so I am going to play 
benefactor and send you and Violet there for 


CONCLUSION 


3 l 9 

the winter. And Mademoiselle writes that 
there is a flat vacant in her same building, 
with one more room and a larger kitchen, 
which she will take if I am willing to come 
with her and go shares on the housekeep- 
ing. You can have dear old Punch and 
Judy. 

“ And one more thing,” she concluded, her 
cheeks red, her eyes shining and her hands 
clasped ; “ Miss Emerson is going to go to 
Lakewood with you, just the same as last 
winter. Yes, Mrs. Somers has helped me to 
arrange it all. She understands the circum- 
stances and is willing to help keep the house 
tidy and all that. There, Aunt Mary, haven’t 
I planned it all nicely ? ” 

Letty was breathless when she stopped, for 
she had talked very fast ; she found the real 
plans infinitely more charming and absorb- 
ing, even in their modest simplicity, than the 
elaborate fairy tales she had invented of the 
lavish expenditure of fabulous wealth. 

As for Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, she broke down 
and cried. She had been worried and harassed 
for so long, and now her troubles seemed in 
such bright prospect of a happy ending, that 


320 LET TV'S GOOD LUCK 

the reaction was more than her overwrought 
nerves could bear. 

“ Why, mother darling,” cried Violet in 
dismay, “what is the matter? Now, when 
everything is coming out so beautifully.” 

“ I understand,” exclaimed Letty, dropping 
to her knees beside Mrs. Hartwell-Jones and 
shedding a few tears on her own account. 
“She’s crying for joy, Violet-Mary, and — and 
so am I, I guess. And oh, Aunt Mary, al- 
though this money has come to me without 
any work on my part, still it makes me feel 
very strong and independent, and I want you 
to promise me that you will never, never fret 
or worry any more, for I am going to take 
care of you and Violet-Mary always.” 

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones looked up and smiled 
through her tears. 

“ I believe it, Letty mine.” 


Other Stories in the Series are : 

LETTY OF THE CIRCUS 
LETTY AND THE TWINS 
LETTY’S NEW HOME 
LETTY’S SISTER 
LETTY’S TREASURE 





























































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